"I am empty now / Leave me with my doubt / I am not yours / Don’t ask me anymore..."
Some folk artists sound like someone who decided to adopt folk as a genre. Their songs might just feel like it is done in a folk style as easily as it could have been done in a pop style. Then there are artists that just sound like folk artists completely. Their sound doesn't feel formulated, or generated, their sound is just is.
Emma Geiger sounds, feels like one of those true folk artists and her track "Empty" (elevated by a wonderful 16mm film to video) is the proof in the pudding or proof of the pudding, or something like that. Even listening apart from the video, you are drawn down, drawn into a foreign place, maybe a foreign time too. Her voice, up front and very personal and the stories she shares is what all the beautiful instrumentation leans on for support. I guess what I am trying to say is that Emma's amazingly personal, tender vocal countenance is everything here. Still, the sonics are gorgeous, feeling crystalline and perfect in their vintage embrace in the way that you find solace in old photos whether they be Polaroid or much, much older when photos were small black and whites images with scalloped edges.
I am empty now
Leave me with my doubt
I am not yours
Don’t ask me anymore
Into open hearts
You say I’ll find comfort
Into broken hearts
We go
We’ve been there from the start
No I don’t want to let go
No I don’t want to leave
But I’m not one
To know when I should grieve
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
I am empty now
Leave me with my doubt
I am not yours
Don’t ask me anymore
Into open hearts
You say I’ll find comfort
Into broken hearts
We go
We’ve been there from the start
No I don’t want to let go
No I don’t want to leave
But I’m not one
To know when I should grieve
LINER NOTES (bracketed):
[“‘Empty’ is one of the least ambiguous songs I’ve written. It feels like I am quietly admitting feelings that were usually kept hidden, in a moment of sudden clarity” Geiger says. Themes of grief and letting go that she indirectly circles on “All Your Words”, a portrayal of the inescapable tension before the breaking point of a relationship, emerge from beneath the surface and into the scrutiny of full light.
Violin from Emma Kelly (Happy Axe, Maple Glider) and pedal steel from Michael Grigoni (albums on Longform Editions, 12k, Other Songs) call and respond around Geiger’s fingerpicked guitar. “The violin and pedal steel are like two voices in conversation, one wanting me to stay and one wanting me to leave”, Geiger says.
As in such moments when the swirling voices of uncertainty subside and the decision of letting go finally crystallizes, “Empty” uncovers a paradoxical world, evoking both deep sorrow and spacious relief.
The accompanying music video was filmed and co-directed by Archer Boyette, who also contributes vocals on “Empty”. In it, we see Geiger in solitary moments by a river with various objects — a skull, a knife, a pomegranate — her careful handling of which imbues the scenes with a sense of undisclosed significance. The video’s creation also followed a path of crystallization out of uncertainty.
“The idea for the video started with the pomegranate without knowing why, just feeling connected to it as something beautiful and strange. But it holds a lot of significance that fits with the song’s themes. It is a symbol of death, abundance, love, and is also in the myth of Persephone, who after eating the seeds of a pomegranate is doomed to spend part of the year in the underworld with Hades. The story in ‘Empty’ feels parallel to this myth; the entrapment in love despite a desire to escape; being convinced by the other to stay. There seem to be endless parallels between the world we created in the video and Perseophone’s fate; the river as a boundary between earth and the underworld; the pomegranate pulled from it as though sent from the underworld; submerging in the river as both departure from earth and rebirth. It’s interesting how these myths subconsciously shape our perception of the world.”
Emma Geiger is based in Durham, NC.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
Hello: Anyone enjoying this read and American Pancake, end of year is always a more difficult time in terms of finances. If you can help out by contributing to our Go Fund Me below it would be super appreciated. Cheers Robb
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1yepwCXWhfLvAtIXCNwmYM
https://www.youtube.com/@emma_geiger
https://emma-geiger.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/emmageiger/
https://twitter.com/emma_geiger_
Emma Geiger's ethereal folk music has emerged from a life spent creating from daydreams and curiosity, investigating the intricacies of heartbreak and presenting them with wonder and honesty. In April, 2022, she released her debut EP Haven with Seattle indie label, Ghost Mountain Records. Received enthusiastically by Bandcamp, Various Small Flames, IndyWeek, WXDU and WKNC, among others, Haven introduced Geiger to a burgeoning scene of genuine, contemplative, singer-songwriters, many of which Geiger has since played with, such as Natalie Jane Hill, hemlock, Sluice, Libby Rodenbough, and Strawberry Runners.
Her more recent songs since Haven continue along the same lines of inquiry while delving deeper and more fearlessly into a constantly shifting internal world. “All Your Words” is the first single from her second collection of songs, which were recorded by Alli Rogers (Plains, Wye Oak, The Tallest Man on Earth) at Betty's in Chapel Hill, NC. Accompanied by Joe Westerlund (Sylvan Esso, Megafaun, Bon Iver), Zack Kardon (The Dead Tongues, Indigo De Souza), Justin Morris (Sluice), Emma Kelly (Maple Glider) and Michael Grigoni (albums on Longform Editions, 12k, Other Songs), this new manifestation of Geiger’s artfully crafted songwriting is evocative and lush. It invites the listener closer to Geiger, and in so doing, closer to themselves.
Violin from Emma Kelly (Happy Axe, Maple Glider) and pedal steel from Michael Grigoni (albums on Longform Editions, 12k, Other Songs) call and respond around Geiger’s fingerpicked guitar. “The violin and pedal steel are like two voices in conversation, one wanting me to stay and one wanting me to leave”, Geiger says.
As in such moments when the swirling voices of uncertainty subside and the decision of letting go finally crystallizes, “Empty” uncovers a paradoxical world, evoking both deep sorrow and spacious relief.
The accompanying music video was filmed and co-directed by Archer Boyette, who also contributes vocals on “Empty”. In it, we see Geiger in solitary moments by a river with various objects — a skull, a knife, a pomegranate — her careful handling of which imbues the scenes with a sense of undisclosed significance. The video’s creation also followed a path of crystallization out of uncertainty.
“The idea for the video started with the pomegranate without knowing why, just feeling connected to it as something beautiful and strange. But it holds a lot of significance that fits with the song’s themes. It is a symbol of death, abundance, love, and is also in the myth of Persephone, who after eating the seeds of a pomegranate is doomed to spend part of the year in the underworld with Hades. The story in ‘Empty’ feels parallel to this myth; the entrapment in love despite a desire to escape; being convinced by the other to stay. There seem to be endless parallels between the world we created in the video and Perseophone’s fate; the river as a boundary between earth and the underworld; the pomegranate pulled from it as though sent from the underworld; submerging in the river as both departure from earth and rebirth. It’s interesting how these myths subconsciously shape our perception of the world.”
Emma Geiger is based in Durham, NC.]
-Robb Donker Curtius
Hello: Anyone enjoying this read and American Pancake, end of year is always a more difficult time in terms of finances. If you can help out by contributing to our Go Fund Me below it would be super appreciated. Cheers Robb
https://open.spotify.com/artist/1yepwCXWhfLvAtIXCNwmYM
https://www.youtube.com/@emma_geiger
https://emma-geiger.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/emmageiger/
https://twitter.com/emma_geiger_
Emma Geiger's ethereal folk music has emerged from a life spent creating from daydreams and curiosity, investigating the intricacies of heartbreak and presenting them with wonder and honesty. In April, 2022, she released her debut EP Haven with Seattle indie label, Ghost Mountain Records. Received enthusiastically by Bandcamp, Various Small Flames, IndyWeek, WXDU and WKNC, among others, Haven introduced Geiger to a burgeoning scene of genuine, contemplative, singer-songwriters, many of which Geiger has since played with, such as Natalie Jane Hill, hemlock, Sluice, Libby Rodenbough, and Strawberry Runners.
Her more recent songs since Haven continue along the same lines of inquiry while delving deeper and more fearlessly into a constantly shifting internal world. “All Your Words” is the first single from her second collection of songs, which were recorded by Alli Rogers (Plains, Wye Oak, The Tallest Man on Earth) at Betty's in Chapel Hill, NC. Accompanied by Joe Westerlund (Sylvan Esso, Megafaun, Bon Iver), Zack Kardon (The Dead Tongues, Indigo De Souza), Justin Morris (Sluice), Emma Kelly (Maple Glider) and Michael Grigoni (albums on Longform Editions, 12k, Other Songs), this new manifestation of Geiger’s artfully crafted songwriting is evocative and lush. It invites the listener closer to Geiger, and in so doing, closer to themselves.
No comments:
Post a Comment