(3/6/5) 017: Half Waif - Big Dipper
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A full eight years (to the day!) since Half Waif released her wonderful album Probable Depths - the first of many times we've covered her music on GFP - Nandi Rose Plunkett returns from the shadows armed with a new song, from a new EP, and the promise that it's "the first offering in a bigger body of work to come."
Eight years down the line, Nandi is still working closely with composer and performer Zubin Hensler and their relationship continues to flourish in colourful ways; new song 'Big Dipper' offering a bold new direction that feels thrilling in its braided and gutsy production.
“This is a song about looking for answers, and finding none, and looking again. It was written at a time when I was feeling very stuck in my body and overwhelmed by compounding griefs. I was inspired by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, who had just passed away, and his idea of continuation–how we are not bound by our forms. We continue on."
Across Half Waif's collection, Nandi's work has always been a vehicle for her explorations of human emotion, whether that's angsty and powerful or delicate and bruised, covering the loss of family or the loss of friends.
'Big Dipper' is no different in that regard, but the shapes it creates feels like a great big chug of fresh air, a leap into a morning garden as the day stirs into life. Packed into just four-minutes of song, we have Nandi's sensual voice, rolling and gentle piano, scattered drum beats, and stabs of hefty guitar. Then, as Nandi returns to sing "I cannot shake the feeling, that there’s no one looking out", a swelling band of voices, provided by NYC's KHORIKOS choir, elevates the song to undeniably moving new heights, where the sun in the sky shines bright in our eyes.
Ephemeral Being EP is released May 31 via ANTI-
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three / six / five is a daily music-sharing project from gold flake paint; read more about the idea here
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