“Each begins with a poem, written last spring during a tumultuous period that left me spinning with no center,” Elliott explains. “Through the practice of sonically circling and weaving in each new line, I reached this trance state, constructing a new axis within myself. My aim is to extend that sonic embrace outward now, inviting audiences into a shared space of resonance and presence.” The songs employ a certain minimalism, especially in their beginnings, though as a means rather than an end. As though by stripping down the present into an ascetic simplicity, Old Man of the Woods is able to push through into another world entirely. ‘Don’t Touch, I’m Shedding’ is a good example, its hushed, swirling sound first playing as a kind of clearing, but at some point switches towards the opposite, repopulating the new space so that it might become an ecosystem of its own.

Whether this process is spiritual, ecological or personal is left unclear, or more specifically, Elliott blurs any boundaries between such categories into insignificance. Indeed, this could be said to be the core mission of Cape Perpetua, and even the Old Man of the Woods project as a whole. An attempt to recharge the natural with its ethereal potential, and to reconsider the human interior as its own fertile space. The accompanying videos further ground these ideas, the often surreal footage quite literally superimposing ecological environments with imagery of religious belief. The result, much like the symbols of cathedrals, stained glass and solemn chants which Elliott draws upon, feels like its own contribution to an age old project. The ongoing ritual desire to recreate the sense of wonder which we sense around us, be it pertaining to God or His green world.

Cape Perpetua is out now and available from the Old Man of the Woods Bandcamp page.

The post Old Man of the Woods – Cape Perpetua appeared first on Various Small Flames.

“A song which shows how the age-old themes of work, loss and responsibility are as much a facet of contemporary folk as any other era.” That’s how we described ‘Platform No. 12 (Old Friends)‘ last summer, the first taste of David James Allen‘s forthcoming album Potpurri Jubilation. The Prince Edward County, Ontario-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist “writes classic country songs,” as we continued, “full of aching longing, wistful reflection and undying hope, as well as a small cosmic twist,” and latest single ‘By Your Side’ further cements these sensibilities ahead of the album’s release later this year via Littleknown Records. “There’s something in the way that she loves me / that keeps me warm through the coolin’ of the night,” Allen sings in the opening lines, immediately pulling the listener into the warmth and fondness of the track. An ode to the safe harbour of a significant other, where calm might be found no matter how stormy the outside world might prove. Tune in and allow the pressures of work, money and self-doubt to dissolve, if only for a while.

Fugue State – We Are Lasting

The new collaborative project fronted by Northampton, MA-based composer, producer and engineer Dan Langa, Fugue State refuses the typical distinction between solo project and traditional ensemble. An outfit which treats collaboration as its own form of compositional methodology, Langa practising what the press release describes as “an obsessive cultivation of studio recordings with a rotating cast of musicians, transformed into spectral, unrecognizable forms.” Released to celebrate signing with Switch Hit Records, and featuring vocalist Maia Friedman (Dirty Projectors, Coco) and VSF fav Erika Dohi on piano, single ‘We Are Lasting’ provides our first glimpse into this new world. The style draws on Langa’s wealth of experience across music, film and multimedia, as well as the sensibilities of its collaborators, though also follows the direction the present moment suggested. “That improvisation became the foundation, and we slowly built everything on top of it,” as Langa describes. “This was the first track that really found its identity, and I often found comfort in it during the creative process—whether for inspiration or just a moment to breathe.”

Gia Margaret – Everyone Around Me Dancing

“A picture of solitude not as some lonely retreat but rather the path towards recognising the wider connection of things. That sweet dark warmth of the whole world.” That’s how we described Gia Margaret‘s 2023 album Romantic Piano, a collection of careful, considered compositions which held a kind of melancholic curiosity for its surroundings. Now Margaret is gearing up to release her much anticipated follow-up, an album titled Singing coming via Jagjaguwar this spring, and opening track and lead single ‘Everyone Around Me Dancing’ suggests a continuation of such themes. The record might be the first to properly feature vocals since 2018’s There’s Always Glimmer (the consequence of illness, as we covered when reviewing Mia Gargaret), but it is far from a simple reversion to a previous mode of working. Rather, Margaret considers every lesson learnt through the difficult process, the resonance of every person she has ever been. The vocals might have returned, but Singing understands something greater. The voice is only part of who we are. There are deeper ways of communicating.

Watch the video directed by Catherine LoMedico below:

Singing will be released on the 24th April via Jagjaguwar and you can pre-order it now.

Little Lungs – The Heat

Little Lungs is a Baltimore folk rock project led by songwriter Leena Rhodes. With Brendan Russell (bass), Eli Simms (drums), Ricky Schwarzenberg (guitar) and an assembly of other friends and collaborators in support, Rhodes creates soundscapes inherently intimate yet often sweeping too. Songs personal, compassionate and often affirming, driven by equal parts warmth and energy. Next month, Little Lungs will put out the full-length album The Heat, and Rhodes and co. have shared the title track to establish the mood and themes of the record. A typically emotive track build around Rhodes’s vocals and the braid of tenderness and strength they are able to evoke. “Face down against the bed frame / You woke to the fire alarm,” she sings, in an opening snapshot that captures the vulnerability on display throughout.

Mary Ocher – The Narrative (First Movement)

“Has roots in the early twentieth century, both in terms of the minimalist sensibilities and the overarching themes, but it is impossible to think of the intra-war period of the 1900s without hearing ominous echoes of the present day.” So we wrote of Mary Ocher‘s forthcoming album Weimar back in January. The challenging, politically-charged album was introduced by lead single ‘The Dance’ (what we called “a mournful dirge for that which is slipping through our fingers”). And now Ocher has shared taut, plaintive new single ‘The Narrative (First Movement)’. Though it is perhaps the video which will earn the most attention. The expressionist piece is by Boris Eldagsen, one of the first ‘reputable’ artists to explore the possibilities of AI who nevertheless carries a strictly critical approach to the nascent medium (back in 2023 Eldagsen refused the Sony World Photography Award after winning for an AI-generated image). Whether this self-awareness might justify the use of such artistically disheartening technology is still very much in question, and personally we’d query whether the video achieves anything which might be unobtainable via more organic means, but if nothing else it fits into Ocher’s overall project in its willingness to push into uncomfortable places and ask the audience to examine exactly how they feel.

Weimar will be released on 13th March and is available to preorder via Bandcamp.

Miserable chillers – Bikeman

“I’ll be the bike, man / the basket and the bell / the breath before I fell / Open skin up to the air / my mouth to taste the day.” So sings Miguel Gallego in the opening lines of ‘Bikeman’, the delightfully smooth and strange introduction to Miserable chillers‘ latest album, Innocent victims, coming soon via Baby Blue. The New York-based composer and artist has covered plenty of ground with the Miserable chillers project over the years, moving from devotional to danceable and back again, or else occupying both moods simultaneously. But the uniting spirit across all releases has been one of curiosity, a mood delivered in sleek, eighties-adjacent pop that allows Gallego to push into surreal territory without losing an anchor to real life. With its anthropomorphic bicycle, ‘Bikeman’ might be the perfect encapuslation of the Miserable chillers aesthetic, and one which whets appetites for the full release.

Natalie Jane Hill – Colors

Natalie Jane Hill‘s forthcoming record Hopeful Woman is one of our most eagerly anticipated releases of the first half of this year. A collections of ten modest but supremely assured songs that explore love in its many facets. Hot on the heels of ‘Never Left Me’ and ‘I Thought Love Meant’, Hill has unveiled a third track, ‘Colors’ another richly imagined but still down to earth rumination on romance. “Simply put, ‘Colors’ is a love song- specifically about the beginning period of falling in love with someone,” Hill describes. “But it’s also about having a better understanding on personal boundaries and not losing yourself entirely in the potential of something new. It’s being able to enjoy the colorfulness of it, while leaving space for the mystery, too.” The song has a fittingly Spring-like feel, tender like new green shoots and ripe with a glorious sense of possibility.

Old Man of the Woods – Edges of Pleasure

Taken from the album Tendrils, Old Man of the Woods‘ most recent single ‘Meditation’ was “a self-described  ‘breathy, minimal ritual'” as we wrote in 2025, “[a song] which performs its own form of transubstantiation, taking a desire which might otherwise appear absurd and changing it into something charged and devotional.” Miranda Elliott appears to have taken such a style to heart, because new album Cape Perpetua sees the Seattle-based artist embrace aesthetics both religious and ecological to push their ambient avant-pop into an increasingly sacred terrain. Elliott intends to release a track every week, building up to the full release in March, and opener and single ‘Edges of Pleasure’ highlights the meditative style. A song of swirling layers which draws on the choral accumulation of Gregorian chants to conjure something that’s at once otherworldly and fundamentally present.

Turner Cody – Recognize a Friend

In a present milieu where country songs are as likely to be about Disneyland and Pepsi as heartbreak and whiskey, St. Louis-based songwriter Turner Cody shows that the traditional and alt forms of the style can coexist. Out via Capitane Records, latest full-length Out for Blood has all the thematic concerns of the giants of the field, mining the American psyche to explore ideas of freedom and fate, individualism, sin and salvation in a way which would make Van Zandt proud. Yet, as songs like single ‘Recognize a Friend’ show, there’s a playfulness within his style too. An idiosyncrasy which, by way of Prine, allows Cody to sit as comfortably next to his alt-country contemporaries as the old masters. The narrative of the track is a familiar one. Ordinary man Billy finds himself gradually growing despondent as he drifts from youthful optimism into the doldrums of normal living. The personification of an entire demographic which finds itself slipping out of its countercultural pep.

Watch the video below, directed and shot by Cam Kennedy, with editing by Ben Chace, co-direction by Ben Chace and color grading by Thomas de Hemptinne:

Out For Blood is out now via Capitane Records and you can get it from Bandcamp.

The Yum Yum Tree – Shine

It has been nineteen years since Georgia-based indie rock outfit The Yum Yum Tree released their last album Paint By Numbers, a hiatus long enough to make even the most optimistic fans fear for the future of the project. After all, the band have other things to think about, not least lead Andy Gish who has spend over two decades as an ER nurse, as well as working in harm reduction. But good things come to those who wait, and this April will see The Yum Yum Tree return with brand new full-length Turn Down the Noise, an album which builds upon the foundations of its predecessor while proudly displaying the extra wisdom, self-awareness and emotional bravery which comes with near enough twenty years of living. Single ‘Shine’ embodies the spirit of the release, packing that nineties-flavoured indie rock punch while showing a newly unguarded, introspective personality. “Shine is about wanting something that doesn’t belong to you,” as Gish explains, “being able to sit with that and still wanting the best for them.” Watch the video directed by Katherine Lucas below:

Turn Down The Noise will be released on the 10th April and you can pre-order it from Bandcamp.

The post Weekly Listening: February 2026 #2 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Back in March we introduced the self-titled debut EP from beaming, the new project of Derek Ted and Braden Lawrence, sharing single ‘slow sinkin’. “With Field Medic adding guest vocals, the track possesses all of the earnestness fans of Ted and Lawrence’s solo work will know well,” we wrote, “the bright rhythm and heartfelt tone the sonic equivalent of shaking clarity into a clouded mind.” With the EP out now via Rose Garden, beaming have unveiled new single ‘4U’. “This song is about falling in love and needing to confess how you feel,” Ted explains. “We wanted it to live in a space between glitchy digital sounds and acoustic moments. The chorus is meant to feel like an avalanche of relief—like everything just opens up once you finally say what’s been on your mind.” Watch the video directed by Olivia Alonso Gough and edited along with Braden Lawrence below:

Beaming EP is out now via Rose Garden and you can buy it now.

Don’t Worry – This Time

We’ve been building up to the release of Don’t Worry‘s new album Idealism in recent months, sharing a number of singles which suggest the record will find the Essex punks exploring new sonic ground while furthering their signature blend of sincerity and playfulness. Taking inspiration of the 90s/00s alt golden age, latest single ‘This Time’ sees the outfit reach towards the likes of Smashing Pumpkins in its sense of scale and weight. The result is as cathartic as anything in the Don’t Worry catalogue to date. “‘This Time’ is a song about learning from bad experiences and making sure you don’t make the same mistakes again,” explains songwriter Ronan Van Kehoe. “It’s about growing as a person and coming out of a rough period into a better time.”

DUG – Livelong Day

Having signed to legendary Irish label Claddagh Records, folk duo DUG have shared a new single ‘Livelong Day’ in preparation for their much anticipated debut full-length. Comprised of Jonny Pickett and Lorkin O’Reilly, the project has quickly risen to prominence in the contemporary folk scene, seeing them earn two Grammy nominations and support slots for the likes of Willie Carlisle and Iron & Wine. Though the new track offers a glimpse at a so far unseen darker dimension of DUG, it is easy to see why they have earned such acclaim. A reimagining of the old folk tale ‘The Legend of Knockgrafton’, the song finds its protagonist sobering up amid a drunken dance in a faerie ring. And while the tone might be slightly heavier than previous tracks, it is one nevertheless leavened by its playful spirit.

‘Livelong Day’ is out now via Claddagh Records.

Kaycie Satterfield – ford falcon

Following on from 2024 album Rosie, a release with Earth Libraries we described as “a record which sets out to explore large themes through a personal lens,” Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Kaycie Satterfield is back with brand new single, ‘ford falcon’. A song full of attitude and honest truths which faces down the expectations placed upon women with a mix of sardonic humour and steely defiance. “I’m not your fucking mother,” as Satterfield says in the opening lines. “I can’t come tuck you in.” She’s not your daughter either, nor your lover, just a woman in the same room. And she’s here to make sure you realise the fact, even if it is the last thing you do.

kissing other ppl – Ashes of American Flags

Last month we introduced the self-titled covers record from kissing other ppl, the new project that brings together folk duo Viv & Riley and singer songwriter Rachel Baiman. The lead single was a take on Dr Dog’s ‘Where’d all The Time Go’, adding a timeless folk style to the original, and now the trio are back with their version of Wilco classic ‘Ashes of American Flags’. It’s illustrative of the outfit’s experimental sense of collaboration, as Viv jumps behind the drum kit to play a “no holds barred snare smash,” while Riley adds distorted fiddle and Baiman gives her all with the vocals. Altogether, it’s a worthy homage to the original, which is no mean feat. “Growing up in Chicago, Wilco were royalty,” Baiman describes of the source material. “The line at the end about fallen leaves in shopping bags brings up such strong childhood imagery for me.”

kissing other ppl is available now from Bandcamp.

Old Man of the Woods – Meditation

“With a languorous, enveloping sound, again the mood is undeniably ghostly, though its eeriness carries not so much fright or unease as a sense of possibility,” we wrote of ‘Amber‘ from the new Old Man of the Woods full-length Tendrils last month. “As though in connecting the long-dawned past with a gesture towards the future, [Miranda] Elliott invites us to consider just how interconnected the stages of so-called linear time might be.” With the album now out, Elliott has shared latest single ‘Meditation’, a self-described  “breathy, minimal ritual” which performs its own form of transubstantiation, taking a desire which might otherwise appear absurd and changing it into something charged and devotional. Built on strangely hypnotic percussion that wobbles and clatters throughout, it’s almost a dance track, but Elliott’s vocals remain ethereal as ever, drifting in and out like curtains of mist.

Rebecca Schiffman – Bubble of Love

“The record sees the LA-based songwriter grapple with what it means to live a moral life within a society that can appear hellbent on compromising our personal values.” So we wrote of Before the Future, the new album from Rebecca Schiffman coming later this summer with Lost Sound Tapes. No stone is left unturned across the songs, with everything from motherhood, grief, family vacations and the ethics of the pet-owner relationship explored. Latest single ‘Bubble of Love’ employs a peppy rhythm and sweet vocals to turn its attention to the familiar arc of romantic love. The song “traces a relationship from the honeymoon phase when you could spend all your time with someone and anything is possible,” as Schiffman explains, “to a time when it feels claustrophobic and you want to pop the bubble.”

Watch the video by Renata Zeiguer below:

Before the Future will be released on the 25th July, including a cassette via Lost Sound Tapes, and you can pre-order it now.

Snake Orange Cake – Stitch

When covering the work of Berlin-based artist Julia Carlsson in the past, it has been for leoblu, a project we’ve described as making “ambiguous and atmospheric music which situates intimate emotion against the more mysterious forces at work around us.” But now Carlsson has branched out towards a new sound, and has thus adopted a brand new moniker. Snake Orange Cake sees Carlsson elevate her experimental electronic style with spoken-word poetry and extra narrative thrust. The first tase of a forthcoming EP, new single ‘Stitch’ offers a glimpse of the invention and playfulness which underpins the new project, weaving a detailed, rhythmic sound over which Carlsson’s spoken vocals play with disarming closeness.

Star Moles – Fate

“The oeuvre is a lesson in the potential of bedroom pop, refusing to settle for genre conventions to push the style in new directions.” So we wrote of the work of Emily Moales’s Star Moles back in May, describing how single ‘Key Change’ embodied Moales’s “growing boredom with idealised romance of polished pop, choosing to instead get its hands dirty and dig into the messy guts of what love really means.” Now Star Moles has announced full-length album Snack Monster, coming later this summer on Earth Libraries, and opener and latest single ‘Fate’ serves as a mission statement for the release. A song which looks to address contemporary neuroses via traditional styles, looking to break free from the strictures of established narratives and reclaim agency from the impression of predetermination.

Xol Meissner – Hunt [97]

The recording alias of Swiss-born, NYC-based composer Mauro Hertig, Xol Meissner pairs baritone vocals with a singular hammered lap-steel style to create soundscapes as evocative as they are otherworldly. New album Excess of Loss might be Hertig’s debut under this moniker but arrives fully formed, each track functioning with the eerie, unnerving logic of a dream. Take single ‘Hunt [97]’, a song sedate in rhythm, drifting within its own textured arrangement, yet shot through with imagery both violent and strange. “Open field vision / we access the graveyards / ancestors aim / at the holes in our hearts,” he sings in one such typically striking verse. Or elsewhere: “The bodies pile up / to a sculpture of justice / fathers are holding / the hands of their sons.” The result is mythic. Oddly timeless yet sonically unique. Weighted with a meaning slightly beyond our understanding. Something which lingers at the edges of our reality. Alluring, terrifying and sublime.

Watch the video by Camille Henrot (director), Ben Scofield (director of photography and colourist), Mauro Hertig, Camille Henrot (editors), Marie-Christine Statz and Gauchère (costume) below:

Excess of Loss is out now and available from Bandcamp.

The post Weekly Listening: June 2025 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Now Old Man of the Woods is back with latest single, ‘Amber’. A continuation of the strange blend of retrospection and yearning which so marks the record. That sense of existing within both the hushed aftermath of something and the unformed period before a new beginning. With a languorous, enveloping sound, again the mood is undeniably ghostly, though its eeriness carries not so much fright or unease as a sense of possibility. As though in connecting the long-dawned past with a gesture towards the future, Elliott invites us to consider just how interconnected the stages of so-called linear time might be.

i breathe your outline
conceive your outline
line by line
line by line

amber

Tendrils will be released on the 9th June.

The post Old Man of the Woods – Amber appeared first on Various Small Flames.

Back in March we wrote about ‘Hold On’, a single from LA’s Bouquet which teased the duo’s first full-length album in a decade, Spellbreaker. The song was a slice of dream pop “rich and romantic [in] style,” as we put it, that “championed restraint within a genre often prone to excesses.” Now Bouquet are back with new track ‘Moon Was Made’, offering a further glimpse at the record. A vintage Linn Drum machine is paired with the hi-hats of an old Roland rhythm box to weave a sound almost ethereal in its analog charm, all supporting lyrics which push and probe for answers amid an enveloping sense of uncertainty.

Watch the video shot and directed by Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs below:

‘Moon Was Made’ is out now and available from the Bouquet Bandcamp page.

Bug Crush – Mikey Told Me

With a new four-song EP Somehow I go in circles all the time set for release next month, Brooklyn-based songwriter Carolyn Fahrner, AKA Bug Crush, has unveiled new single, ‘Mikey Told Me’. Written after first moving to the city and living in less than perfect housing conditions, the track finds Fahrner tapping into the universal, slightly surreal experience of discomfort in a new place, where everything feels a little hazy and out of sync. “I wasn’t sleeping well because my bedroom floors were three inches uneven. In my groggy waking hours, I wandered around Brooklyn and frequently passed by a store called Mikey’s Hook Up. I thought it was a funny name and it stuck in my head. I wanted to write a song that wasn’t really about me, or anyone I knew, but I think it inevitably ended up being a reflection of my experiences in the world.”

‘Mikey Told Me’ is out now and available from the usual places, Somehow I go in circles all the time will be released on the 16th May.

JLJR – Thumbtack

“Adopts a tone both reflective and defiant to chart the end of a distinctive kind of relationship. One troubled and difficult to live through, yet equally one whose closure takes something from you too.” That’s how we described ‘Arms For Eyes’, the lead single from JLJR new EP The Rest of Your Life, coming soon on Paper Moon Records. Latest single ‘Thumbtack’ is no less reflective in style. A mosaic of iPhone takes and tape loops which weaves a lo-fi representation of memory itself, while the disarmingly sincere vocals meditate on grief to give the ostensibly inviting sound a real emotional edge.

The Rest of Your Life is out via Paper Moon Records.

Myriads – Call It Quits

Described as “a study of love, happiness, depression, and the search for meaning in these universal human experiences,” Find Ourselves Again is the new EP from Portland, OR-based outfit, Myriads. The work of frontperson Maria DeHart has morphed over the years, evolving from a solo endeavour built upon acoustic and later loop pedal foundations into the full band which would become Myriads, though has maintained a sincere, confronting tone throughout the arc. The new EP represents the next step in this process, blending elements of bedroom and dream pop with the heft and energy of indie rock to communicate in a typically unguarded, empathetic manner. Single ‘Call It Quits’ embodies the style, its wistful fondness counterbalanced with fuzzy weight, capturing the experience of a break-up in all of its conflict and longing.

Old Man of the Woods – Anticipating

“Tendrils is a collection of devotionals, written at a yearning distance from their beloveds. It’s the recognition of the vines that bind us to all we adore, at times only felt once they become taut, begin to quiver, reverberate, fray, snap, curl.” So describes Miranda Elliott of the new album from Old Man of the Woods, set for release this June. Recorded during a residency at the Culterim Gallery in an abandoned German sanatorium, the album explores the close relationship of preservation and decomposition, evolving the goth pop of previous releases like Votives and Triptych I to increasingly evocative results. Lead single ‘Anticipating’ provides a hint of the haunted vibe therein, playing like a private party for one held in memory of all that came before which nevertheless, as per its title, holds hope in the possibility that that which has been lost might be accessible some way down the line.

Tendrils will be released this June.

Penny & the Pits – Pool Party

“Lacks none of the mood or bite of the Motherhood sound, [Penelope] Stevens matching head-banging heft with an abstract, poetic lyricism which plays like a personal journey into the strange currents and slacks of this thing we call life.” So we wrote of ‘Montenegro on Ice’, the first single from Penny & the Pits‘ debut album Liquid Compactor, forthcoming this summer via Forward Music Group. Described as “a gritty, adventurous punk-rock album that processes feminist joy, rage and revenge,” the record harnesses this energy for both fun and fury, something exemplified by latest single, ‘Pool Party’. A surf punk number full of playfulness and bite which again highlights the imagination of the project, telling the delightfully dark story of a girl gang hell bent on revenge against the men who have wronged them.

Watch the video by director of photography Amelia Bailey below, with art direction by Audrey Kirk and Penelope Stevens and editing/colouring by Nicole Cecile Holland:

Liquid Compactor is out on the 27th June via Forward Music Group and you can pre-order it now.

Rose Haven Motor Hotel – Trasig

If any one feature marked Things Don’t Stay, the 2024 EP by Jackson-based project Rose Haven Motor Hotel, it was a sense of perpetual change, the style switching from traditional folk to alt-country swagger and back again on a whim. The release was “appropriately titled,” as we put it, “not only evoking the overarching wistfulness which marks the release, but also speaking to the stylistic fluidity which occurs across the five songs.” Released in preview of a forthcoming EP, latest single ‘Trasig’ sees Ben Atkinson continues to push the project towards new styles and influences. An instrumental guitar track he describes as “George Harrison meets Delicate Steve meets a biker gang.” A song of retro richness and a notable mean streak which refuses to outstay its welcome and maintains an air of mysterious cool as a result.

Slake – Votive

Back in March we introduced Slake, the recording project of self-described ‘lesbian doom folk’ songwriter Mary Claire, with single ‘Bonecollector’. Serving as “both a window into the singular vision of the Californian artist and an embodiment of the collaborative spirit which brings their work to life” as we put it, the track was the first glimpse of Slake’s new album Let’s Get Married, coming this June with Cherub Dream Records. New single ‘Votive’ further grounds this style and suggests all of the album is delivered with the same shadowy atmosphere and intimacy that made its predecessor so striking. Against the backdrop of a subtle yet poignant arrangement, it is Claire’s vocals which represent the heart of the track. A voice that plays as both a plea and a prayer, looking for a way to move beyond present suffering or else come to understand the purpose of the pain in order to better withstand it.

Soot Sprite – Vicious Cycles

With the release of new album Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon fast approaching on Specialist Subject Records, Soot Sprite have shared final single ‘Vicious Cycles’ to further whet appetites. We’ve previously described the album as “a call to arms to fight against the forces that make contemporary life so difficult, and a reminder of the radical potential within empathy and community,” and the new single zooms in on the most personal experiences to explore how such a mission might look on an individual level. “‘Vicious Cycles’ is about addressing your patterns of behaviour and the damage done in previous relationships,” as lead Elise Cook explains. “The fear of retribution for the smallest of hiccups that sticks with you long after the impacting relationship is done. The thought that you’ll never fully shake it off.”

I can’t wash off the oil from your spill
Part of me is always blackened by your will
Try to leave it in the years
But I still shake with fear
The eggshells stab like little spears

Sucker Crush – Stranger

Echoqualia is the latest EP from Sucker Crush, the recording project of Oakland-based songwriter Marissa Deitz. Built from a myriad of home recordings made between 2016 and 2021 and elevated beyond the sum of its parts with extra work in the subsequent years, the release has been long in the making, and this extended gestation period only served to add to its richness and weight. “A lot has happened in that time (personally, politically, pandemically…),” as Deitz says, “and it’s a strange and beautiful thing to hold these songs as they are now.” Lead single ‘Stranger’ highlights the signature blend of chamber pop and electronic sensibilities of the EP, its gentle, airy style belying the orchestral depth of the sound, and Deitz’s vocals equally notable for their simultaneously hushed and powerful tone.

Yoshika Colwell – There’s Got To Be A Loser Babe

“Pushing the folk sound into ethereal, almost cosmic territory, the song again embraces the satisfying weirdness of dreams, where logic might not adhere to the ordinary laws of such things, yet feels like logic all the same.” So we wrote of Yoshika Colwell‘s ‘Last Night’ back in February, but despite the single’s dreamy aesthetic, its heart was firmly rooted in the physical world. The track features on Colwell’s debut full-length On The Wing, an album coming this summer on Blue Flowers which further mines the more ethereal territories of folk to explore real life experiences. “This album is a bit of a shrine I suppose to all of the pivotal experiences that shaped me during my twenties and it’s also, I feel, a tentative lean towards hopefulness for the future,” Colwell explains. “It is, at its core, an album about acceptance and release, and freedom from old binds […] The process felt quite ritualistic, akin to writing down the things you know you need to let go of on a piece of paper and burning it.” Watch the video for latest single ‘There’s Got To Be A Loser Babe’ by Tilly Wace below:

On The Wing is out on the 25th July via Blue Flowers and you can pre-order it now.

The post Weekly Listening: April 2025 #3 appeared first on Various Small Flames.

A song that she says “comes from acknowledging the type of magic that exists all around us and yearning to get a taste of it,” ‘rosemary’ is the new single from addy (the project led by Philadelphia’s Addy Watkins). Her first new music since last year’s temperance, the song takes indie pop and stripped-back folk and refracts them into a new shape entirely, something warm and fond and all-enveloping.  “I was in love with a witch once,” Watkins describes of the song’s inspiration, “who taught me rosemary hung over my bed would help with my crippling nightmares. which it did and still does whenever I remember to hang it.”

Alice Hebborn – Saisons – Movement 2

December sees the release of Saisons, the debut album from Belgian composer Alice Hebborn on Western Vinyl. Created following a move to the countryside, the record draws inspiration from theories of ecofeminism and environmental harmony and presents a world cast volatile and disordered in the wake of human impacts. Across seven movements, built of piano and electronics, Hebborn imagines a different future. One in which humans cease to throw the natural balance and instead become a key link in a harmonious web of reciprocal relationships. Lead single ‘Movement 2’ is “the starting point of Saisons,” Hebborn describes. “It was written in the spring and draws its inspiration from the captivating images of this season: the awakening of nature and our senses, the great activity of all living things.”

Banti Buli – Hennessy Song

“Refusing to commit fully to irony or sincerity […] as though a song about relationships couldn’t really function without equal doses of heartfelt emotion and tongue-in-cheek humour.” So we wrote of Banti Buli‘s ‘Something Like a Honda Odyssey’ last year, a song which mixed languid rhythms with a distinctively verbose lyricism. Ahead of an album due next spring, Banti Gheneti is now back with ‘Hennessy Song’, a track which see the US-based Dutch-Oromo artist take samples from his surroundings to build an earnest soundscape exploring the transience of even the most steadfast habits. “The closest thing to a home (the Ethiopian corner store) becomes a hole in the ground and your lover leaves you,” as Gheneti says. “Even routines and promises are ephemeral.”

figure eight – 1999 (cherry)

A mainstay of the Bay Area scene, figure eight originated as the experimental noise project of duo Nash Rood and Abby Goeser, starting out with nothing but a distorted synthesizer and acoustic drum kit. However, on welcoming a number of additional members in recent years (including Nicholas Coleman on bass and Nicky Esparza on drums), the band has now evolved into something altogether more full-bodied. Take new single ‘1999 (cherry)’, a song with finds the outfit at their most boisterous and reserved within the same three minutes. The searing opening is indebted to hardcore, though the crushing momentum soon breaks into something almost delicate. These twin threads of lightness and weight weave across the track into what appears to be the spirit of this new version of figure eight—a band aware of the transcendent power available at both ends of the spectrum.

His His – My Friend Wants to be a Freemason

We last featured Aidan Belo’s His His project almost exactly a year ago when we covered the single ‘Ford Econoline’, a song about life in a tour van that we said felt “like the sensation of returning home in your mind as you cruise down an unfamiliar stretch of highway in some faraway city.” The Toronto-based artist returns with a new EP, Good Gold, coming out next month, and has just released the final single ahead of the release. Informatively titled ‘My Friend Wants to be a Freemason’, it’s a track about a childhood friend who became obsessed with joining a masonic lodge. “The idea of joining this secret society consumed my friend, and for a couple of months it was all that he’d talk about,” as Belo describes. Musically the song follows a familiar His His formula, a gentle and folk-inflected indie pop song that wears an air of weary wistfulness like the grain in an old film photograph.

Good Gold is due to be released on 15th November via Victory Pool Records. You can pre-save it now on streaming services.

Kassie Krut – Reckless

Kassie Krut are wasting no time introducing themselves. “K / A / S / S / I / E / K / R / U / T / T / T / T,” goes the opening line of new single ‘Reckless’, a de facto theme song for the new project of Kasra Kurt, Eve Alpert (formerly of Palm) and Matt Anderegg (Mothers, Body Meat). The band have just signed to Fire Talk Records, and new single offers a glimpse at the core of the project. Something undoubtedly contemporary yet possessing a rawer dimension too, as though through the idiosyncratic art pop style comes an altogether more atavistic, primal energy. Directed by Guy Kozak, the video for the song was filmed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and offers a visual representation of the sound’s frantic playfulness.

‘Reckless’ is out now and available via the Kassie Krut Bandcamp page.

Mark Trecka – Witch’s Hat (ft. Midwife & An Heap)

The work of Mark Trecka never sits still, the Chicago-born artist and activist utilising sound to explore a diverse set of styles and themes in a practice as inventive as it is ambitious. More recent work has turned towards post-punk as an avenue of exploration, and latest single ‘Witch’s Hat’ continues to plough that same furrow. Recorded between Paris and Colorado, the track is described as Trecka’s “Halloween song,” existing with the common ground between that which is haunting and beautiful. Midwife joins on backing vocals and An Heap on synths to further elevate the dynamic, the song moving from apparent minimalism into a gauzy atmosphere as though pushing through the layers of time itself.

Michael Younker – Bad News

Michael Younker is a Detroit-born, Brooklyn-based production designer who also makes rock & roll music that he says “melds lighthearted cynicism with unashamed big rock motifs.” He has just released his debut EP, Sweet Things, a four-song record that’s brash and chaotic and amped up with bratty energy. “Sonically & lyrically, Sweet Things feels like the kid who ate too much sugar, bounced off walls, and passed out on the floor,” Younker describes. “Music of obsession, excess, indulgence, and…consequences?” ‘Bad News’ is perhaps the best place to start, capturing the EP’s manic motion and carefree bravado. “I can’t make you love me,” Younker sings, before snottily trying his best anyway in the following line – “C’mon, give it a go!”

Old Man of the Woods – Ghost

“A visceral exploration of a villain’s arc, tracing her devolution from possession to obsession to dissolution.” So reads the album notes for Triptych I: Devolve, the latest release from Seattle-based project Old Man of the Woods. The first in a series of EPs, the three-song collection offers a self-described “goth ethereal mycelial” sound to chart a fall from grace in all of its tragedy, majesty and strange avenues of agency. Such as with single ‘Ghost’, where the central character moves from resentment to something closer to power with the realisation that the ability to haunt can represent its own form of control.

Orchid Mantis – Dead Malls (feat. Cathedral Bells)

Following a collaboration with Sign Crushes Motorist earlier this year, not to mention several more singles in the meantime, Orchid Mantis (the recording project of Atlanta‘s Thomas Howard) has returned with a new single ‘Dead Malls’. This time featuring Orlando, Florida shoegazey bedroom pop act Cathedral Bells, the track uses imagery of an abandoned shopping mall to explore emotions altogether more personal. Where past hopes, once bright and shiny and full of promise, have withered on the vine, now little more than empty husks. But the atmosphere is not downbeat, rather wistful and hazy, looking back on old memories as though flickering warm and grainy from an old film projector.

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With album Catastrophe Darling out now, California trio Artemisia have unveiled new single ‘Spider’ as a window into their sound. Finding inspiration in everything from Appalachian mountain music to the vivid synths of eighties movie soundtracks, the band conjure songs somehow both organic and ethereal, and ‘Spider’ serves as the perfect example. Born upon seeing the titular creature weave a web over their harp, the track hones in on the intricate splendour of nature, emerging as something as delicate and dreamlike, transporting the listener into a space between the real and the spiritual, where nature takes on an exalted status and beauty and sorrow are one and the same.

Catastrophe Darling is out now and available from the Artemisia Bandcamp page.

Beryl – All Things

Consisting of Gabriela King and Alex Jasprizza, Sydney-based art folk duo Beryl are preparing to release album Dry Peel Crack in the coming months, and latest single ‘All Things’ introduces the central themes. It’s a picture of a relationship crumbling and a lesson in learning to accept the fact, something captured in everything from King’s compassionate croon to the album artwork itself. Blain Cunneen (Julia Jacklin) joins the pair on guitar, bass and drums, helping to bring to life a sound at once melancholic and fond.

Carlos Truly – Much 2 Much

Aside from being a founding member of Ava Luna and a collaborator with the likes of Frankie Cosmos and Princess Nokia, Brooklyn‘s Carlos Hernandez also records solo under the moniker Carlos Truly. Released via Bayonet Records, 2022’s Not Mine highlighted his sleek, ever-inventive brand of pop, and new single ‘Much 2 Much’ continues the play with new directions. Again on Bayonet, the track is the funkiest ode to life’s habit of overwhelming us you’re ever likely to hear. “Not to be too much of a bellyacher,” as Hernandez says, “but sometimes you just want to yell about it.” But loose-limbed and full of swagger, the song is anything but angry, playing like the soundtrack to a late 80s/early 90s city caper where a luckless protagonist can’t help but be the coolest guy around. Watch the video with cinematography by Stefanie Santana below:

‘Much 2 Much’ us out now via Bayonet Records.

Diners – Someday I’ll Go Surfing

Diners, the recording project of Blue Broderick, might have made a name with a dreamy sound straight out of the halcyon sixties, but new record DOMINO looks to skip ahead a decade and lean into unapologetic rock. The album is out via Bar/None Records later this month, and new single ‘Someday I’ll Go Surfing’ sees the shift towards newfound energy occurring in real time. A surf pop jam whipped up beyond the languid nostalgia of the genre, choosing instead to set its eyes on the horizon. “‘Someday I’ll Go Surfing’ isn’t exclusively about surfing,” as Broderick confirms, “but rather confronting the unknown and moving on to the next big thing.”

Eldridge Rodriguez – The Strange Things That Happen to People

We’ve followed the work of Eldridge Rodriguez for the past few years, describing recent work as “capturing the strange blend of panic, depression and monotony” with “a tone somewhere between fondness and weariness which builds its own urgent compassion.” With new album Atrophy coming next month, the band have shared single ‘The Strange Things That Happen to People’, continuing the evocative mood of the previous releases by facing up to the accumulated regrets of life. “You burn a lot of bridges when you’re young because you think you’re king shit,” explains lead Cameron Keiber. “You get older and self reflective and you want to repair a lot of the damage you’ve done. I suppose it’s a call to be aware of your surroundings throughout life, really. It’s hard but then you wouldn’t have to make amends later.”

Intac – Strange Soles

“Strange souls / Comin’ out the woodwork / Lookin’ for some good work / Before we go to town.” So goes ‘Strange Soles’, the latest single from Somerville, MA artist Intac. The self-described “Digital Americana / Cyber Folk” artist descends from the likes of kissed her little sister, laying a bed of easy-going pop beats upon which to build a world both slightly surreal and tangibly emotive. For within the languid summer swagger rises a mist of nostalgic longing, a sensation which hangs over things long after the track has faded off over the horizon.

jer – portland, ca

Having featured in a variety of bands across his home of Portland, Jeremy Murphy has become a familiar face in the local scene, though it is only now he’s stepping out into the limelight alone for a solo release under the moniker jer. Out via Bud Tapes, the self-titled album took shape over a number of years before Murphy travelled to Philadelphia to mix the accumulated songs with Nathan Tucker (Strange Ranger, Cool Original). The result, as shown by single ‘portland, ca’, offers a distinctively personal statement from an artist finally in total creative control. Where authentic sincerity is achieved by mixing lo-fi bedroom sensibilities with the polish of indie pop.

Large Brush Collection – Tell Me Again

With debut album Off Center scheduled for release in January 2024, Austin-based folk rock outfit Large Brush Collection have shared their first single, ‘Tell Me Again’. A picture of a child-parent relationship painted in all of its conflicted complexity, where failed expectations and the baggage of the past is counterbalanced by a persistent love, leading a cycle of friction exhausting for all involved. Lead Nora Predey approaches the subject with tender care, pulling no punches in their assessment of the situation while acknowledging the bonds that still remain. “[My mom has] been trapped in a cycle of conflict with me and with herself,” as Predey explains. “I feel a lot of frustration and pain from our relationship, but a lot of love towards her too.”

Ribs – Claws

Originating as a solo piano-led project of Boorloo/Perth-based musician Georgina Cramond, Ribs has now morphed into a full-fledged indie pop band ideally suited to Cramond’s searching, affirming style. With a focus on both dealing with and recovering from trauma, new track ‘Claws’ is an encapsulation of the Ribs aesthetic, its weighty sound offering a marbled image of vulnerability and strength to explore themes of intimate partner violence. “Growing claws is about learning what you will no longer accept,” Cramond explains of the song’s repeated refrain, “how anger can be a protective and productive force, and regaining control over the jagged parts of your history.”

‘Claws’ is out now and available from all the usual places.

The Sizzos – No Big Sky

Led by singer-songwriter George Zaninovich, Eugene-based outfit The Sizzos have just released their latest record Glitter in Gravel, and single ‘No Big Sky’ is the ideal point to jump in. An ethereal combination of indie folk, classic rock and new wave as wide as the desert heavens, though its themes are altogether more grounded. An attempt to find meaning and solace amid personal loss which evokes the album’s title in its search for brightness within an otherwise bleak milieu. “Like winter clouds under cement and steel / Today I’m grey but I keep moving,” as Zaninovich sings, casting the listener alongside the song’s burdened narrator. “And like a sinner vows to love and to heal / Today I pray but you do the choosing.”

yfjesse x Old Man of the Woods – Wednesdays

We’ve long celebrated the work of Seattle-based artist Old Man of the Woods, most recently with album Votives on Totally Real Records. A dream pop album which offered “a collision of reality and unreality, or rather a disintegration of the boundary between the two.” Miranda Elliott has now teamed up with Portland producer yfjesse for new track ‘Wednesdays’, a song which takes the Old Man of the Woods sound and blows it up into lush widescreen, the sound seductive in its languorous rhythms but full of elaborate detail too. A style fitting for a track which takes on the pleasures and pitfalls of a fickle summertime tryst.

‘Wednesdays’ is out now via Totally Real Records and available from the usual places.

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To celebrate the release of the vinyl edition of the album, which you can get now from Bandcamp, we took the opportunity to ask Elliott some questions about the record. Read on below to find out more about the metaphors, mushrooms and mazes of conflicting emotions which make Votives what it is. During the conversation, Elliott declares her deep appreciation for the work of Adrienne Lenker, and we’re delighted to be able to share a special cover of Big Thief ‘Not’ alongside the interview.

Hi Miranda, thanks so much for speaking with us. Congratulations on Votives! How was the experience of putting out a full-length record?

Surreal! I’m still getting used to anyone listening to my music – it’s such a rush. I recently saw myself pop up in a handful of top artists during that frenzy of Spotify Wrapped sharing, and I know it’s a little silly, but I legitimately got teary. It’s so special to be able to connect with people in this way! I don’t take anyone’s ears or attention for granted, there’s so much to engage with. I just feel incredibly lucky for the way this has all played out – for you writing about my debut EP in 2020, for Bryan Bruchman (Totally Real Records) finding me, for everything that’s come of that. A couple years ago, I couldn’t have anticipated that I’d ever be making vinyl or cassette, or even feel comfortable sharing these songs with friends. It’s been a profoundly empowering experience.

The press release describes how the key motif of votive candles emerged from two events: one from this world and one a dream. Could you detail the experiences in a little more detail? Were they eureka moments in shaping the album, or was the process more gradual and organic?

The album came together very slowly at first, then suddenly, almost without me knowing, it had arrived. I spent months grouping different combinations of songs, and none of them quite worked. I assume that’s the difficulty of anyone’s debut – should it be current and focused and sonically cohesive, or tell a deeper story of who you are and what you’ve explored as an artist thus far? I’m eternally indecisive, so choosing from dozens of unreleased songs was hell, and I kept writing new ones instead, just to complicate matters.

Luckily, writing one specific song was what actually solved the puzzle. In February, I wrote ‘Votives’ after talking to a group of old friends that had all ordered love candles from the same East Village occult shop. I’d been taking a pleasant break from dating (somewhat forced by the state of society), and I’d honestly been enjoying it, but I still toyed with the idea of getting a candle myself. I imagined lighting the wick and watching my last relationship reignite. I’d held regrets about ending it, but envisioning it play out again, I realized I’d end it again. There was so much relief in that realization. I held that flame in my mind and blew it out. That night, I dreamt that peoples’ minds were little churches filled with votives burning for everyone they’d ever loved. Lots of red velvet and rose windows and vaulted ceilings and flickering lights against dark shadowy walls. That imagery stuck with me.

Over the next few days, I created a new grouping of songs, all different eras and sounds. I was in this sort of daze, almost felt like I was being guided, just doing without thinking for once. What came to be wasn’t sonically cohesive, but was emotionally so, forming this labyrinth of love and loss. There was no straight line narrative, more of a flicker between devotion and resentment, affection and isolation, faith and doubt. I loved that, that it oscillated. It felt true, and that’s all I’d wanted.

This dreamlike quality is captured by the fogginess which hangs over the songs, one which presents an interesting feel. On the one hand it’s insulated and intimate, drawing the listener right into what are often highly personal experiences, but there’s a sense of distance too. An ethereal tone which challenges the boundary between real and unreal. How do you feel, looking back at the songs now? Where does the needle land on the un/real continuum? Does there need to be a distinction?

I love that you ask whether a distinction is needed between the real and unreal, because no, I don’t think one necessarily even exists. We’re all experiencing our own individual version of reality all the time, some cocktail of internal and external. I used to think there was an objective world we all moved through, but we’re so deep in our heads and influenced by the stories we’re told and tell ourselves, the whole concept of objectivity seems like a fantasy.

So, to return to your question, I think dreams are as real as anything else to the dreamer. I write from a place that’s hyper genuine and almost embarrassingly earnest, and that place knows where my body has been and where my mind has been and everything in between. I’m honestly still self-conscious about releasing work that’s so raw. The intention isn’t to overshare, it’s catharsis, a snapshot of a feeling, you know? I see life in patterns, like this tapestry that’s constantly being woven, so it’s not as if any one song is about one breakup with one person, it’s not a diary entry of the events of a day. They’re really all about everything, threads of different moments that held the same energy. I enjoy specifics in storytelling because I like being led to a place, but I hope to only lead a listener there, then let them look around and project their own lives all over it. Maybe that’s the distance you’re sensing, that I want to leave enough space for you to make the place yours.

Writing about your debut release Dissolve, we wrote of how the wilderness and organic processes were an intrinsic part of your work, referring right back to the Old Man of the Woods moniker. The link was front and centre on Dissolve, but perhaps slightly more layered on the new record. Did you give yourself more freedom on Votives to step beyond or away from the concepts of previous work, or do you see it very much as a continuation of this original OMOTW aesthetic?

Votives is admittedly less overt in its link to the natural world than Dissolve, but I still feel very connected to the mushroom as a metaphor for the role that songwriting plays in my life, and I’m still incredibly influenced by natural soundscapes – in fact, a number of tracks on Votives weave in field recordings from the mountains, river, beach, backyards, balconies. I’m always recording bird calls and cricket choruses and rapids and rain and anything else that excites me. Really I think the biggest change is that I’m hiding behind the moniker less with Votives. It was born primarily from a desire for more anonymity – I needed a character outside of myself to release things that felt so dear to me. Now, it gets to be more of an aesthetic that I can play with and explore. I’m enjoying that shift.

Could we talk a little about your influences? I’ve already used words like ethereal and intimate and dreamlike to describe your music, but there are definite pop elements too, and overall I think it’s pretty unique. How did you land on this style? Is it something that comes naturally? Or do you consciously piece together disparate pieces to form a cohesive whole?

I don’t write with a certain sound in mind. That’s felt forced when I’ve tried – my songs seem determined to unfold at their own pace, so I’ve learned to let them. I approach producing more like collage. Most of the time songs start with a phrase that’s been floating around my mind, then I explore writing more lyrics with chords or a bass line or a beat, then I gradually build up the rest of the sounds around that. Sometimes I let it sit for a while and chop it all up later and that remix becomes the original.

As far as influences go – so, so many! I’m such a fan, I love hard on what I love. I’ll listen to a song or an album every day for months, it’s outrageous (having that moment with Indigo De Souza’s ‘Hold U’ right now). I’m sure you can hear the imprints of those obsessions in whatever I’m making. I wrote Votives over many years of many phases with many artists…at one point, lots of Waxahatchee, CBMC, Remember Sports, Radiator Hospital. Fell hard for their rawness. More recently, obscene amounts of Porches and Boy Harsher. Love that combo of dark, atmospheric, crunchy, and catchy. Absolutely worship Adrianne Lenker’s songwriting and James Blake’s production. His livestreams are so special too, how his songs still manage to hold the same essence when played on just piano. I play around with mine in the same way, seeing how much I can take away and still keep the feeling. Pop is definitely pervasive in my regular listening, as is anything with a dreamy harmony. Grew up on The Beatles and Zombies and Beach Boys and Gregorian chants. Everything I like probably falls into the category of ethereal, they just belong there for different reasons.

Votives is out now via Totally Real Records and you can buy it from the Old Man of the Woods Bandcamp page, including the new vinyl edition.

Photos by Joan Elliot

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The music of old man of the woods […] is a forest of its own. One often still and quiet, mournful in the way woods can be, but quietly powerful too. Because the systems of life and consumption within the natural world are different to those of our own, and within the lonely forest and its constant regrowth lies a humble secret. A comfort, a humble triumph over death.

Fast forward a year and Old Man of the Woods is preparing to release its debut full-length album, Votives. Out via Totally Real Records, the album develops the style introduced on dissolve, pushing beyond the natural world and into that of dreams, thereby inviting us further into Elliott’s distinctive imagination.

To introduce the release, Old Man of the Woods has unveiled the title track. It proves a fitting choice, as the album took root in the image at the song’s heart. “I wrote ‘Votives’ after seeing friends that had coincidentally ordered love candles from the same witchy shop,” Elliott explains. “I imagined lighting one and watching my last relationship reignite. I’d regret ending it for too long, but envisioning it play out again, I realized I’d end it again. There was so much relief in that realization. I held that flame in my mind and blew it out.”

With a sparse synth line suspended upon an ethereal depth beyond, the track throws us into the deep end of this newfound dreaminess. Elliott’s vocals swing between soft and plainspoken, invoking the bittersweet confrontation mentioned above, as the song gradually builds into a languid electro pop hit.

This development mimics the intuitive logic of dreams, where the subconscious strips away layers of complication and instead presents feelings as images abstract and strange. “That night, I dreamt that peoples’ minds were little churches filled with votives burning for everyone they’d ever loved,” Elliott continues. “That image really stuck with me and played a large role in bringing the rest of the album together.”

The post Old Man Of The Woods – Votives appeared first on Various Small Flames.

The music of old man of the woods […] is a forest of its own. One often still and quiet, mournful in the way woods can be, but quietly powerful too. Because the systems of life and consumption within the natural world are different to those of our own, and within the lonely forest and its constant regrowth lies a humble secret. A comfort, a humble triumph over death.

Since we wrote about the record, old man of the woods has teamed up with Totally Real Records to release the EP on cassette. The first run of silver glitter tapes sold out in days, but there is now a second run. To celebrate the release, old man of the woods reimagined one of its tracks, switching out the synths of opener ‘made your bed’ in favour of piano. “The original felt much more defiant,” Elliott explains. “This feels like open windows and curtains blowing in the breeze and wondering where the time went.” So what previously felt confrontational is now rendered intangible and strange, an echo of a previous thought or action left to float high up around an empty room.

We’re delighted to be able to share the track today, so grab your headphones and dissolve with old man of the woods.

The post old man of the woods – Made Your Bed (Piano Version) appeared first on Various Small Flames.