It’s been a bit of a curiosity for me, noticing how the artists and poets among us express or reflect– or even attempt to contain within themselves– the global pandemic.
One year after Harrison Storm‘s earlier track Sea and Fire (October 2020), he brings us again to the sea. Perhaps that’s what Australian musicians do for the world, lead us to the sea. In a world of protocols, angst and restrictions, the sea is expansive. Open. Free.
And this time Harrison Storm is not alone. Withdrawing to a seaside artist share-house in his native Australia, Harrison and fellow Australian musician Enna Blake meet and begin a conversation.
And something beautiful is born. Their collaboration produces a new single Under Dusk. The energy immediately draws me in. It’s reflective, introspective, dynamic yet not turbulent. Created with limited resources and instruments, Storm’s light but moving rhythms on the acoustic guitar embody the energy. Sensitive touches on the piano knit warm textures of intimacy and vulnerability into the fabric of the song. The tempo is just right. Any slower and the song may have become melancholy or even despairing in feel. Any faster and I think we may have moved into angst. It really feels to me like watching the rolling white caps of the ocean waves in the distance, standing Under Dusk on the shoreline and wondering about the state of the world and my place in it.
But what is really remarkable in this track is Storm and Blake’s vocal duet. What could have been another typical mellow, acoustic folk tune is transformed into a truly mesmerizing piece by the subtly stunning combination of their voices. They are a perfect and inseparable match. Their muted hues together feel honest, human, stripped away from pretentiousness or performance. Just two people looking out over the ocean.
I will leave you,
If you don’t let me see you
In another way
Under dusk.
Perhaps it’s about a relationship, a relationship that needs to grow in its disclosure or to risk dying. A time to open to one another more and trust that love will still be there. Or perhaps it’s about taking the risk of befriending ourselves, our willingness to see our more hidden parts. There’s a risk of losing our own souls if we live too much on the surface, in the bright sunshine of midday, and neglect the deeper parts of ourselves that we can experience “in another way, under dusk.”
In either case, this stunning new track offered by Harrison Storm and Enna Blake will reach into deep places with its beauty and simplicity.
