The piano in 'After Words' explodes on a heavy, storm-summoning chord, and continues dramatic and grounded in the impending trauma at the heart of it. It's the feeling of having tenderness turned on its head, sinking sadly on the sofa; a warm and homely environment where ghosts seep in through the walls and cling to your skin.
High notes tumble and ache, like thoughts on stilts wading through the heaviness of your head - the fine, disturbed lines of London musicmaker uah's dim washed canvas. That fogged feel is nudged along by the gradual gale of phasing ambience that settles into the track, soon made the tormented dominance of it all, piano - all semblance of mindful control fading.
"I wrote 'After Words' when I was trying to make sense of the difficult times a friend was facing," uah types. "I didn't know whether to be stoic or sad or just be true to the trepidation I felt inside. Recording it helped me decide to be all of those, and more."
Starting low and crawling beneath the surface of the detached mist, trails of synth slowly crack the surface, pushed up with the aid of analogue crushing sub, bubbles glooping from the depths. Unsteadily the trails begin, like something reanimated trying to find its feet, until the treble hits a crescendo; the synth gallops in streams, cutting, the phasing surge of ambience like a heavy cloud getting lower.
As 'After Words' fades, the camera focused on the warmly lit room zooms out in time, showing the window, other windows, the building - night.
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- 🔔 This lovely little track is taken from uah's Not Dreaming Anymore EP, a collision of antique piano and curling analogue synths. Listen to it over on SoundCloud. And if you like you can purchase it from Bandcamp.
