Released August 1st
Two people, ten guest musicians, a haunt of instruments, and an album of subtle beauty. August and After, also known as Ned Mortimer and Vedantha Kumar, release Embers, an album with a title well chosen, its beauty lying in its gentle flickering rather than any brash roar. Music of a vespertine air, as the day closes and house lights start to dim.
Opener Halley explores a journey, the growth of a life and the two people sharing it together, one of many stories in song form of past experiences. Woven between the lines of all the songs on this album these personal reflections and explorations are so welcoming that they create the feeling that not only are you enveloped in the fabric of the songs, feeling every emotion, but there is nowhere else that you would rather be.
Gleam Behind The Ghosts is given a body of its own in the wholesome string section, and the aching pathos of Waltz For Marie is the how all stories should sound. A quivering guitar on Salamander slowly nullifies any angst, beautifully enunciated diction of lyrics such as ‘apples cling to stratospheres’ in The Orchard add to the variegated beauty within this set of songs, and personal favourite The Jailbreak Song bounces off its boundaries, flexing muscles in a sparse space, fans contributing the foreign spoken word.
A rich tapestry of sounds, each of varying thickness and complexity, all added to a band of aural excellence. It’s hard not to believe that each sound on this record has been nurtured and grown with love and reverence. Art fans to the core, their live performances are a visual experience, and the duo have a series of collaborative film projects scheduled for the summer, including two animations, a contemporary dance video with the UCL dance society and Tripos Productions, a video project with the London School of and have created an independent art platform, whereby fans and artists submit their art as an accompaniment to the songs.
Celebrate their album launch on June 14th at The Islington.
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