British actor-turned-songwriter Keeley Forsyth released her startling debut album Debris earlier this year, and it was on of our picks for recommended quarantine listening. It just so happens that Forsyth was continuing to work on music while in quarantine, and has created a whole new EP out of the situation; it’s called Photograph and will be coming out on November 20. Today she shares the title track, saying:
“I always work from home. This time, the isolation had a new influence on my lyrical ideas. I was contemplating the idea of homesickness within the home; when life is lived on the domestic grid, in rooms and in tasks. I was looking to reframe the day, to give sound to the picture.”
Even this early into her musical career, Forsyth and her collaborator Matthew Bourne have found a sonic palette that perfectly accentuates the gravity of her voice. On “Photograph” that atmosphere is turned inwards, into something claustrophobic. Grey washes of sound roll down like endless rain on a window while Forsyth stares into the middle distance, half contemplating the titular “Photograph” and half lost in memory. Surges of bass synth come into the mix as Forsyth’s musings further engross her; “I couldn’t find you in my arms” she bemoans, as shots of wistfully beautiful melody and silver tones crack through, shedding cold light on her isolated mind.
“Photograph” also comes with a video created by Forsyth with Ross Downes, adding morbidity to this ominous song. She says:
“Ross and I worked closely on the video. We discussed the absurdism of Samuel Beckett, Eugène Ionescu and Antonin Artaud and the movements of the Tanztheater tradition, all of which has influenced the music I’ve been writing. We were working towards a place where archetypes, expectations and behaviour are unclear – a woman feeds her family with soil while digging her grave.”
Keeley Forsyth’s new EP, Photograph, is coming out on November 20 through The Leaf Label – you can pre-order it from her Bandcamp.
