The moniker of Portland‘s Jesse Carsten, Half Shadow is a mysterious project which has made a reputation for weaving songs which live up to its name. Tracks carved from the boundary between light and dark, excavating this space of all its esoteric substance and becoming as intimate as they are strange. After two albums and a handful of other releases, Carsten is back with a brand new Half Shadow record which expands upon the previous material and looks to develop it into something cavernous and grand without losing the personal heart at its core.
Not that the subject matter necessarily suggests a more expansive sound. A joint release between Bud Tapes, Dove Cove Records and Illusion Florist Records, At Home With My Candles was recorded during quarantine, and as such directs its attention toward the ordinary/odd duality so often found behind closed doors. “An album of mythopoetic paeans to the domestic uncanny,” as the press release puts it. “The mysterious and unseen worlds experienced at home.” But to have such a cloistered record push into the largest and most encompassing sound yet feels entirely fitting for Half Shadow, and indeed the logical progression of its explorations of inner worlds.
Lead single ‘Song for the Garden’ serves as an introduction to this newly expansive style. With the plucked acoustic guitar and reverb-laden synth supported by Yaara Valey‘s flugelhorn, the song offers something lush and rhythmic to celebrate the growth beyond a home’s walls. These conditions prove fertile ground for Half Shadow’s poetic sensibilities too, the rich sound wrapping around Carten’s vocals and lifting them to the the fore, an uncanny marriage between personal insight and a wider mystical experience.
I watch the poppies bloom
weeping evening blue
mineral bright water
effortless dew
I sleep with you… at the root
At Home With My Candles comes out on the 8th April via Bud Tapes, Dove Cove Records and Illusion Florist Records. You can pre-order it now from the Half Shadow Bandcamp page.
