Park Hills Circle Debuts with All of a Sudden

Maris O’Tierney has released her first solo album under the name Park Hills Circle. All of a Sudden arrives after several years of work with her twin sister Bryce in the duo Maeve & Quinn, whose EPs and 2023 full-length Another Door drew from their Alaskan upbringing, Irish heritage, and Chicago home. The new record extends that geography of sound while adding fresh instrumental layers.

Recorded at Chicago’s Bim Bom Studios and co-produced by engineer Michael MacDonald, the album places O’Tierney’s voice and guitar at the center, supported by Aaron Otheim on keyboards, Dustin Laurenzi on saxophone, Quin Kirchner on percussion, and Matt Ulery on bass. The arrangements are cool and precise, never crowding the songwriting. Single “Spring Is Here” moves on acoustic fingerpicking and a directness rooted in observation: walking Lake Michigan reminded O’Tierney of the nature she left behind in Alaska. “Now spring is here / You left before the birds were returning / But I’m still yearning,” she sings.

Stylistically, the album refuses one lane. The rustic folk of “Playing with Fire” draws on years spent in Ireland, while opener “Clearing” leans into sophisti-pop with subtle synths and Laurenzi’s saxophone. Synthesizers also shape the ethereal “Unspoke,” and “Company We Keep” finds its edge in a stuttering beat and confident acoustic strum. Traces of Kate Bush and Tori Amos surface in the music’s more atmospheric moments, but O’Tierney’s songs remain grounded rather than derivative.

The title track closes the record with a sense of arrival. “On my own / I know I’m home again,” she sings, finding an Alaska-like stillness within Chicago. It’s a quiet but firm declaration of place, earned across the breadth of a debut that values specificity over spectacle.