South for Winter - "Of Sea and Sky"
As “Tears of an Albatross - Part 1” plays you into this album, there’s an overwhelming sense of acoustic serenity — absolute peace and harmony strummed into existence on guitar and cello; made manifest under the bow of a violin. It’s an immediate justification for my impulsive decision to add this album to my list. At the time, I had just learned of Kendrick’s surprise release, but was blissfully unaware of how many more albums I was going to find in my last-minute research.
But South for Winter’s sound is a dream come true. The band bills themselves as Folk-Blues, Folk-Rock, and Americana. To which I say…yes. Those are accurate, though there isn’t much on this album that truly strikes me as Americana — it’s closer to Country, specifically, than Americana. But I would also propose a new descriptor: Dream Folk.1
Dream Pop, but make it acoustic. It has all of the ethereality, but relies on Folk instruments and styles. The addition of weightier Blues elements on songs like “Underneath the Blood Moon” warps the dreamier elements, making them sound a bit more nightmarish. Since “Underneath the Blood Moon” is a murder ballad involving madness, it really works.
South for Winter’s sound is largely simple elements working together to build something greater than the sum of its parts. All together, the songs don’t sound simple, despite that the band is only a three-piece of all-acoustic instruments. To be fair, I suppose, each member of the band tracks multiple instruments. On their website, South for Winter’s members are credited as:
Dani Stone (Cichon) – Vocals, Mandolin, Acoustic Guitar, Tambourine, Shaker
Nick Stone – Vocals, Acoustic Guitar, Electric Guitar, Resonator, Stomp Box
Alex Stradal - Cello, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals
The band’s origin story is one of happenstance. Dani Cichon, of Colorado, and Nick Stone, of New Zealand, were both in Peru for a volunteer program in 2014. They became friends while building greenhouses by day and playing together on a rooftop by night. They wrote what would become South for Winter’s first song on that trip, then went home. Years later, they reunited and decided to pursue this project (and, judging by Dani’s name change, a bit of romance along the way). They picked up Cellist Alex Stradal to round out the project and set up shop in Nashville.
Of Sea and Sky is the group’s sophomore album. Their debut, Luxumbra (which I’m linking here because you need to see the cover art), released in October of 2020.
At large, the album, and the group’s overall sound, reminds me of The Civil Wars, a now-defunct duo which consisted of Joy Williams and John Paul White. They had a similar ‘gorgeous-yet-dark-acoustic-Folk/Country’ vibe going on (check out “Eavesdrop”). That is not remotely a bad thing — my wife and I were distraught to learn that The Civil Wars had split up…pretty much right after we discovered them, too.
Of Sea and Sky is billed as a concept album, but that seems to be limited to its structure, as best I can tell. The album is framed by a trio of minute- to minute-and-a-half-long instrumentals titled “Tears of an Albatross”, the title of which comes from an old Maori poem. Death is certainly a strong motif in both the poem and the album; had I access to the full lyrics and a bit of time, I might be able to work out exactly what the album is doing.
These “Tears of an Albatross” tracks start and end the album, but there’s also one right in the middle — track 8 of 14. And the album’s tone shifts sharply at that point, with the Blues elements taking a strong step forward at that point, and the ethereality becoming less prominent. The band’s description of the album highlights this change, stating that the first half of the album is the “Sky Side”, while the second half is the “Sea Side”. “Tears of an Albatross - Part 2” is notably moodier than the other two, as well, as it primes the listener for this shift, which leads right into “Styx and Bones”.
That track, “Styx and Bones”, is the one I heard a snippet of as my wife was scrolling TikTok that made me immediately look up the band. It’s also one of the best tracks on the album.
There’s only really one truly upbeat song on the album — “This Man Will Be the Death of Me” is a folky dance number (forgive me, I can’t place the proper term for this song’s style at the moment). It is followed by “Redwater”, which is a shanty.
South for Winter has quickly become one of my favorite discoveries of the year, jumping right up there alongside Mothica and Alcest.
I really like this album. I think you will, too.
Rating: Blue
This is an existing subgenre (or microgenre?) which I haven’t yet plunged. The term struck me when thinking about this album’s sounds, so I googled it. Last.FM’s community have flagged artists like Marissa Nadler, Benedict Benjamin, and Julia Lucille, among others.