Sarah McLachlan celebrates 'Fumbling' at the Mann Center
If nothing else, it shouldn’t be a controversial take that her third album, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, is a dang masterpiece, and has aged remarkably well. The shimmering and otherworldly production by longtime collaborator Pierre Marchand… it’s all pure magic that gets you in your feelings, uplifts you, and back and forth, over and again.
[www.xpn.org]

Sarah McLachlan Revisits Her Star-making Album 'Fumbling Towards Ecstasy'
For the album, McLachlan worked with Pierre Marchand, who previously produced Solace and would go on to helm several of her subsequent releases. "Pierre gave me a real foundation of allowing me to figure out who I was," she says. "One of the most important things he said to me was, 'I know you can sing high in all these different ways, but I wanna hear what you really sound like.' So he pushed me into my lower register, and I think that I really found my voice at that point."

In contrast, the somewhat whimsical "Ice Cream," which has since been a staple of McLachlan's live shows, provides a respite from the emotional tumult of Fumbling's preceding songs. The singer said that the track barely made it on the record. "I was still very young at the time, and I wanted to be taken seriously," she explains. "I felt it was kind of too glib and light. But Pierre, once again, in his wisdom, was like, 'You know, you need some lightness [laughs]. This is part of who you are.' He encouraged me to not be afraid to show that side of myself."
[www.newsweek.com]

Martha Wainwright
Marchand took a nurturing approach to the recording process, encouraging Wainwright to perform her songs over and over, in a wide range of environments, at different times of day and night, and with varying levels of intensity. "He's someone who is very patient... He was able to soften my voice when it needed to be softened, and let it rip when it needed to let rip. I have a tendency to sing on 11 the whole time. He would see the bigger picture and say, ‘No, this one is better because you’re not giving it all away.’ He just had an attention to subtlety that I maybe lack."
[www.montrealgazette.com]