We first wrote about the Durham, North Carolina-based songwriter Emma Geiger back in 2022 with the release of EP Haven on Ghost Mountain Records. Written at dawn amid the aftermath of a relationship and cross country move,” single ‘Flock’ struck us with its ability to capture “the strange halfway quality of crepuscular light. The fleeting moment between night and day that carries its own inherent stillness.” Geiger’s vocals offered an equally ambiguous dimension within this mood, “their tone caught somewhere between hesitant and assured in their reflective mood, though always swelling with the promise of change.”
Together with bass from Zack Kardon (The Dead Tongues, Indigo De Souza), drums from Joe Westerlund (Sylvan Esso, Megafaun, Bon Iver), and guitar from Justin Morris (Sluice, Sun June), Geiger weaves an ostensibly calm, tender style of folk, though dip beneath the surface and you’ll find a more turbulent mood. The push and pull of competing currents which represent the unseen physics of any relationship. Take latest single ‘All Your Words’, where the contemplative tone belies the interior chaos which underpins the song.
Written during the confounding experience of leaving familiar people and places when the vestiges of fondness remain, ‘All Your Words’ blurs nostalgia and desperation into its conflicted sound. That strange tension between knowing change is needed and being unable to quite picture what might come next. Strings from Emma Kelly (Maple Glider) offer relief in the chorus, hinting towards the potential to move through this state, and the result feels like a memorial to a very specific period. “This song feels like a time capsule of my mental landscape from the time that I wrote it,” as Geiger explains. “It is about dissonance, distance, and wondering what shape resolution could take. It is less of a representation of how I feel today, but in certain moments I can still relate to the confusion I was overwhelmed with at the time.”
Photo by Archer Boyette