It’s been almost half a year, but damn: this one’s still completely in awe of the two shows The New Eves played at last year’s Left Of The Dial festival. I described them at the time as “Margaret Atwood’s take on Fairytale in The Supermarket” which doesn’t seem to do them justice. The New Eves are a hard-to-pinpoint blend of the traditional and the pioneering, and today we’re finally hearing some new music from the Brighton quartet. “Astrolabe” – with its haunting vocal harmonies and lurching cello swells – sounds as if The Velvet Underground’s “All Tomorrow’s Parties” had been written by a Pagan cult a few centuries earlier.
The eerie and beautiful timeless quality of “Astrolabe” feels like no accident. Named after an anachronistic instrument used to model celestial bodies, it rings as a spiritual serenade reverberating through all the different eras of modern civilisation. According to the band, “Astrolabe” “draws inspiration from lovers across the centuries; from the love letters between Heloise and Abelard in medieval France to Bonnie and Clyde’s romantic partnership in crime in 1930s America, the New Eves bring you something that feels both modern and ancient. The song’s refrain, ‘Many are the stars I see, but in my eyes no star like thee’ can be found on a 17th golden ‘poesy’ ring that is housed in the British museum, once given as a love token. The line embodies the feeling of the song, of a love that is both fated and cosmic.”
Listen to “Astrolabe” – out via Slow Dance Records/Broadside Hacks Recordings – below and find it on your favorite streaming outlet.
