Danielle Fricke is an artist and musician from London, Ontario, who you might know from her work with Snow Mantled Love (who we featured here and here). Fricke and the others have put the band on an indefinite hiatus while they pursue other projects and, while Fricke has been releasing a steady dribble of songs and videos, this EP is her first physical release.

Burrow is a four-song EP of rich, atmospheric ambient music. ‘i.’ opens with samples of birdsong and the sound of the wind before gentle and poignant piano meanders with what could be melancholy or wonder, the last mammal left before winter or the first to rise from hibernation. ‘ii.’ sees the piano swapped out in favour of something even more subdued, a fragile electronic breeze which whistles over a land muted with snow. ‘iii.’ is slightly weird and skewed, overlayed with staccato fuzz which appears with the skittish unpredictability of moths around a lamp, while ‘iv.’ opens out into something larger and more intense, a blend of cinematic instrumentation and electronic drone with Fricke’s voice swirled into the mix. Behind each track is a delicate yet ever-present hum, a continuous noise that (paradoxically) mimics silence, the sound of air in your ears when all else is absent that gives a sense of intimacy and isolation.

While Fricke is certain to have success as a conventional indie/pop musician and vocalist, Burrow shows that she has many other avenues to explore and exploit. Don’t be surprised if her instrumental music forms the soundtrack to the best, saddest film that hasn’t yet been made.

You can buy the album now from Fricke’s Bandcamp page.

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While the track is undoubtedly a Dark Mean song, it is a change from their previous work. “We’ve been digging into a new EP that was created while our lives transformed” they explain, “we travelled the world, started families and realized careers. The music we created naturally transformed as we did”. The result is a song that gradually builds from a mellow beginning to a noisy end, complete with horns and distorted guitars.

You can get ‘Albatross’ from the Dark Mean Bandcamp and watch the video, directed by Lee Skinner, below. If you are new to the band then be sure to check out their debut album here.

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