The latest Trevor Davies release is The Stream, a three song EP that weaves together many of these influences. Davies plays multiple guitars in layered arrangements (what he lists as “acoustic, delayed electric, distorted, and a solid modern-rock bass and drum sound”), and also calls on a cast of collaborators to further flesh out the sound. Tyler Lieb plays pedal steel, Anatol Mcginnis violin and cello, Phil Albert electric bass and double bass and Lucas McKinnon drums, while there are additional vocals by Zoe Lauckner, Billy Young and Gillian Stone (whose great album Spirit Photographs you can read more about here).

Davies says each song on the EP “touch[es] on the Buddhist concept of water ‘seeking the lowest level,'” and a sense of emotive and philosophical rumination pervades the record. Opener ‘What Else?’ is a folk-inflected pop song that unfurls in easy rhythm as Davies asks plainly, “What’s so bad about dying? / What’s so sad about crying?” The title track too has something gentle and considered amidst its layers of rich instrumentation, carried along in its own currents as it grows toward a soaring finale.

But perhaps the standout is closer ‘Glass Bead Game’, a track inspired by the Hermann Hesse novel of the same name in which intellectuals of the future play the titular game—the mastery of which requires comprehension of the sum of all human knowledge, from science and philosophy to music and art. Beginning as a writing exercise to bring the book’s themes into song, the track is an epic meditation on knowledge and aesthetics and the need for human connection.

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As we described in a preview, the release is structured around Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s stages of grief—denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance—each song taking us a step further through this experience. Thus opener ‘June’ with its slow warmth and lingering melancholy leads into the simmering ‘Amends’. A song where ethereal tones give way to physicality as Gillian Stone descends into rage.

I felt you under my breath,
growling, mewling in my chest.
A fountain of youth I whetted then left.
Regret is a wily muse, but I’ll name it out loud

Representing bargaining, ‘Raven’s Song’ rises from the aftermath of this angry crescendo. A track which “captures a mind seized by obsession through natural imagery,” as we wrote in our preview. “Stone carrying a torch through a nocturnal forest, a place of dark rivers and eyes in the night, hoping to go down to the water and snuff out the fierce burn in her hands.” The song eventually fades into silence before a cover of Black Sabbath’s ‘Solitude’ evokes the depressed stage of the journey, as though in searching the river Stone finds herself lost. “My name it means nothing / My fortune is less,” she sings. “My future is shrouded in dark wilderness.”

But across the track’s peaks and troughs, something flickers. The smallest flame to be protected and nurtured. Closer ‘The Throne’ might not be the final epiphany or longed-for recovery, but it marks a new relationship with everything that has gone before. An ability to look at the past clear-eyed, to speak it aloud. To accept it for what it was in the hope that it need not always be.

Gillian was kind enough to answer some questions about the record, so read on for in-depth thoughts on its structure, influences, and the therapeutic nature of making music.

Hi Gillian, thanks so much for speaking with us and congratulations on the new EP. How does it feel to be so close to letting Spirit Photographs into the world?

Thank you! Honestly, being this close to releasing Spirit Photographs feels a bit surreal. It’s taken up so much of my brain space over the last two years. I’m excited and apprehensive, along with feeling incredibly vulnerable. But I’m also very proud of it. It’s taken me years to finally release my work in a meaningful way.

Can we talk a little about the structure of the record? Why did you decide to map it around the Five Stages of Grief, and how did this inform the creation of the record?

The Five Stages of Grief model came to me after most of the songs had been written. Only “Amends” was written with that concept in mind. I had been researching post-WWI/Spanish Flu works of art, and, upon finding very little, came across some literature referring to the Spanish Flu as the “forgotten pandemic”. No one wanted to talk about it, to create in reference to it. I then discovered the phenomenon of spirit photography – essentially a double exposure hoax, but a method people were using to combat grief during that era. I thought about how much this represented the denial stage. I then realized I had been exiting a denial stage myself when I wrote “June”, and how much “The Throne” represented acceptance. And everything just fell into place after that.

Despite the difficult themes, the album emerges with a certain sense of triumph. As though there’s power in the way it confronts trauma head on. Was it a therapeutic record to make?

It was very therapeutic, and I absolutely wanted to imbue the record with a sense of triumph. For me, writing music is a form of therapy. I essentially create other worlds where I can explore big emotions in a safe and controlled way. Between trauma and mental health, I have had significant experiences with grief throughout my life. Using songwriting as a tool to let these feelings pass through me is triumphant – naming ghosts in order to vanquish them. At its core, Spirit Photographs is a record about love, whether it be self-love, romantic love, or familial love. Grief is about love. And love is a triumph.

Who/what do you consider the biggest influences on your work? Both in terms of sound and lyricism?

There are so many, but Joanna Newsom, PJ Harvey, and Nina Simone are huge for me. They are so singular, and fearless in creating whatever the fuck they want to create. “Don’t Smoke in Bed” from Nina Simone in Concert is one of the most perfect performances I have ever heard. I was also introduced to Low while I was recording Spirit Photographs, and Double Negative became a huge influence on the process. They have since become one of my favorite bands. Mimi Parker’s recent passing hit me hard – I don’t think I’ve ever been that upset about the passing of an idol.

We can’t talk about the release without mentioning the videos for the singles you directed along with Emma Buchanan and Amir Heidarian. Could you expand a little on the films and how the collaboration came about?

Working with Emma and Amir was very special. I first met Emma when she came to one of my shows with a mutual friend. I was at a barbeque with her a few days later, and she was like “what you’re doing is post-rock” and I felt so understood. It turned out she was in film school, and I was looking for someone to make my next two music videos with. We started to discuss concepts, and everything flowed so easily. Emma then brought in Amir, who has the most beautiful eye for composition and colour. Every meeting we had, every site visit and discussion about concept, was all so positive and respectful. For both videos I gave them I top-down concept and they ran with it; everyone’s ideas and views were taken into consideration. Those videos were a true collaborative effort.

Spirit Photographs is out now and available from the Gillian Stone Bandcamp page.

Photography by Joel Gale and assisted by Danielle Fried, album by John M. Hall and Gillian Stone

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Following on from the magnificent Tender on Whited Sepulchre Records, Denver‘s Allison Lorenzen has returned with brand new single, ‘The Fourth Cycle’. The song probes into the multitude of emotions which accompany significant change, from bereavement to impetus and everything in between, without too much by way of intent or judgement. Rather its slow sound sits within this conflicted headspace, examining the situation’s each and every nuance, if only to ground itself as things around it shift and alter.

Annie Sumi x Brava Kilo – Chattels

A vehicle for artists Annie Sumi and Brava Kilo to work through their histories, Kintsugi is described as an “anti-racist, interactive, multi-disciplinary art installation” which explores ideas of heritage and historical trauma in the context of the Japanese Canadian internment. The installation opens this week at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre in Toronto, and the duo are also releasing an EP of the same name. Kintsugi, the Japanese practise of mending what was broken. First single ‘Chattels’ draws upon archival documentation which listed the belongings stolen from their ancestors during this period, both acknowledging the injury sustained through such losses and applying the imagery to the wider experience of alienation and stigma.

You can find out more about the project on the Kintsugi Installation webpage.

Gillian Stone – Raven’s Song

Writing of single ‘Amends‘ back in July, we described how Toronto/Tkaronto-based artist Gillian Stone combines post-rock and folk to explore themes of addiction and mental health struggles, with that track focusing on the anger stage of grief. Latest single ‘Raven’s Song’ continues the development, moving onto the bargaining period and complicated by what Stone calls a “state of limerence.” It’s a song which captures a mind seized by obsession through natural imagery. Stone carrying a torch through a nocturnal forest, a place of dark rivers and eyes in the night, hoping to go down to the water and snuff out the fierce burn in her hands. The song’s video was co-directed by Emma Buchanan and Amir Heidarian along with Stone herself. Watch below:

‘Raven’s Song’ is available now from the Gillian Stone Bandcamp page.

H.C. McEntire – Soft Crook

Following her 2020 sophomore solo album Eno Axis, H.C. McEntire has returned with a brand new single. Titled ‘Soft Crook’, the song is what McEntire describes as “an exercise in vulnerability and trust,” a slice of stark country rock that explores her experiences with depression. A refusal to shrink away from the experience in all of its struggle and pain, looking the beast right in the eyes and finding power somewhere deep within. Albeit not the power of bold action, but instead the quiet, lasting courage that comes with treating yourself with kindness and understanding. “The chorus became an anthem, of sorts,” McEntire describes, “a mantra for letting go of guilt in needing these things—whether medication or TV shows or other vices—to offer myself some grace.”

Do whatever dose you need to
to make it through the night

Half Gringa – Miranda

With new EP Ancestral Home coming early in 2023, Chicago‘s Half Gringa has shared the first single ‘Miranda’ as an introduction. A song which builds upon the themes seen on 2020’s Force to Reckon and last year’s single ‘Sevenwater’, it nevertheless takes a more introspective tone. The change mirrors the recording process, which saw Isabel Olive move away from the fast-paced collaboration of recent albums and back to the intimacy of her earlier solo work. “I love collaborating, but at heart, I’m very introverted,” Olive explains. “Having a rich inner life is essential to me, which I think can overlap with both collaboration and solitude. I sense that each project I work on demands something different of me, and I’ve been trying to listen to my own instincts for that more and more.” Check out the video directed by Olive along with Robert Salazar below:

‘Miranda’ is out now and available from the Half Gringa Bandcamp page. Ancestral Home will be released on the 27th January.

June McDoom – Stone After Stone

Raised in South Florida and now based in New York, June McDoom is readying the release of her self-titled debut EP on Brooklyn label Temporary Residence Ltd. Her music is influenced by a love for 60s and 70s folk, intricate jazz and early soul discovered while studying a degree in Jazz Performance, and the reggae of her childhood home. McDoom takes all the ingredients of typical folk music and updates it for new audiences and a new era, exploring themes of self-discovery and self-acceptance along the way. Lead single ‘Stone After Stone’ is a good example, the timeless vocals swirling amidst instrumentation that is rich and multi-layered, despite its hushed nature.

Kathryn Mohr – Holly

With new release Holly coming soon on The Flenser, California-based multi-instrumentalist Kathryn Mohr has shared the title track as the latest single. Building upon the spacious lo-fi soundscapes of 2020 album As If, the song sees Mohr embrace a stormier ambience, something drawn perhaps from the surroundings of rural New Mexico where she recorded the album with Madeline Johnston (Midwife). What results is no less introspective than the previous record but somehow larger, as though Kathryn Mohr has excavated a larger space within herself, complete with its own climates and depths.

wanted / need her / tell her father
hero holly / feeling sorry
heat up heaven to unsettle
feel it / hold it / take it slowly
out of reach of my hands

Holly is out via The Flenser on the 21st October and you can pre-order it now

Weeper – Petal

Based in Buenos Aires, Weeper is the project of Mary Craig, José Sanchez and Agustina Perrotta. Their latest release, an EP called Morale out now on Ghost Mountain Records, arose from a break the band took from working on a full-length album, a collection of six songs they describe as “self-soothing” which aim to comfort and console amidst life’s worries. Lead single ‘Petal’ illustrates this nicely, combining melancholy and solace with its fingerpicked twelve-string guitar and gentle melody. “Hanging on like a petal,” Craig sings, “aching through season,” on a track Weeper describe as “an ode to accompanying oneself through life.”

Ziyad Al-Samman – Hard To Say

After spending time in various bands around London, half-Syrian, London-based songwriter Ziyad Al-Samman decided to go it alone, developing a distinctive brand of psych pop which employs equal parts fun and feeling. Out via Handsome Dad Records, new single ‘Hard To Say’ is the ideal introduction for the uninitiated, a dreamy track which overlays retro nostalgia to the pressing present moment, serving as both a tribute to and subversion of classic pop. “I always wanted a charming and pompous ‘lala’ sing along on a track, much used by my favourites Pulp and Blur in their early writing, and this just fit the song perfectly,” Al-Samman says. “I like the innocence and playfulness it brings to the climax of the song. Did you know ‘la’ actually means ‘no’ in Arabic?” Watch the video directed by Andrea Mae Perez below:

‘Hard to Say’ is out now and available from all the usual places.

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Following previous single ‘Shelf’, a song which also saw Gillian Stone make her directorial debut with a video made with Toronto filmmaker John M. Hall, she is back with a brand new single, ‘Amends’. Again deepening the folk style with ambient and post-rock sensibilities, the song holds a weightless quality in its opening, levitating with a strange dreaminess in part thanks to the work of multi-instrumentalist Michael Peter Olsen (Zoon). Though as the track progresses and Spencer Cole’s drums kick in, a newfound heft emerges, as though the various layers coalesce into something chaotic yet grounded in weighty truth.

The song focuses on the anger stage of grief, acknowledging the power of naming in overcoming personal issues. “It is a fearless moral inventory, an understanding of the effect on self and other, an odyssey through four and five of The Twelve Steps,” Stone explains. “My recovery journey has been riddled with shame that still lives in my bones. The final line of the song, ‘regret is a wily muse, but I’ll name it out loud’, is an attempt to exorcize this shame from my body. By acknowledging the ruins of my Anger, I am attempting to destroy the destroyer.”

I felt you under my breath,
growling, mewling in my chest.
A fountain of youth I whetted then left.
Regret is a wily muse, but I’ll name it out
loud.

The video is again directed by Gillian Stone and John M. Hall, with photography by Hall and photographer Joel Gale. “A movement piece that conveys my body in fragments,” as Stone describes, “drawing from the concept of the Split Self in Internal Family Systems. It builds into a cathartic somatic experience as I dance to fuse myself back together.” Check it out below:

‘Amends’ is out now and is available from the Gillian Stone Bandcamp page.

Album photography by Joel Gale and assisted by Danielle Fried

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