“Everything’s changed and nothing’s changed,” says vocalist Rachel Davies of their sixth album, Hold Sacred. “This kernel is the purest essence of Esben and the Witch since our inception.” It’s a product of the trio’s deeply important, 14-year-spanning friendship. Together, they shut themselves away to plunge into and search for solace in the depths of exhaustion, depression, anxiety, existential fear – and all beginning long before the world shut down and changed irrevocably.

“A group of butterflies is called a kaleidoscope. This song felt like something being born, a creature opening its eyes for the first time, innocently seeing the world and how beautiful it can be. A butterfly doesn’t live for long, a fleeting dream, soaking up the beautiful things,” the band explain. “We wanted the song and the video to capture this spirit. The hazy, psychedelic warmth of summer. The vivid colours of the meadows and the thrum of activity within.” The song describes a rebirth – finding peace in the beauty of change and growth.

The post Esben & The Witch share new single/video for ‘A Kaleidoscope’ appeared first on She Makes Music.

“Everything’s changed and nothing’s changed,” says vocalist Rachel Davies of their sixth album, Hold Sacred. “This kernel is the purest essence of Esben and the Witch since our inception.” It’s a product of the trio’s deeply important, 14-year-spanning friendship. Together, they shut themselves away to plunge into and search for solace in the depths of exhaustion, depression, anxiety, existential fear – and all beginning long before the world shut down and changed irrevocably.

They’ve released the first single from the album. ‘The Well’ is an eerie, echoey meditation on the experience of depression. Though Davies begins the song in a dark, isolated place, she goes on to plot an escape, clinging to glimmers of resolve and hope. “I can climb out if I dig my fingers in,” she vows (a nod to fan favourite track, 2014’s ‘Dig Your Fingers In’).

“A voice echoing from the bottom of a well. A call from a chamber, from within oneself, to summon the strength to climb out of the darkness, when it seems impossible.” Davies explains.”To call upon things often deemed frightening and to change your perception of said demons in order to survive. To build a ladder of light to aid your own escape.”

The song is accompanied by a stunning video. Inside a grotto encrusted with shells and fossils, quartz shimmers in the dark. Minerals adorned with spiderwebs glint in the light that falls through a circle in the chamber’s ceiling. A woman hides here, safe with her secrets, alone in a hermitage, waiting in exile. Stalking the folly she seeks to step out of the dark and into the light, gathering herself to leave and face the outside world.

The song’s sentiment, of clawing oneself through the darkness in whatever form is possible, is at the core of the entire album. “It touches upon a spiritual strength, an enlightenment of sorts and a will to clamber out of despair and follow the light,” says Davies.

Hold Sacred:

1. The Well
2. In Ecstasy
3. Fear Not
4. Silence, 1801
5. True Mirror
6. A Kaleidoscope
7. Heathen
8. The Depths
9. Petals of Ash

The post Esben & The Witch announce new album Hold Sacred and share first single, ‘The Well’ appeared first on She Makes Music.