I Was Born Swimming. Squirrel Flower

The album was released late in January of this year, so before the world became ever so small. By chance, thank you Spotify, one of the songs of  I Was Born Swimming, was played after an album of Jess Williamson ended and caught my ear. I started listening and haven't stopped really since.

Squirrel Flower is Ella O'Connor Williams, living in Boston and stemming from a family with a musical streak. Her father's bass playing can be heard on this album. After touring with artists like Soccer Mommy and Adrienne Lenker, both not unfamiliar to this blog, she recorded her debut album with producer Gabe Wax, who had worked with Lenker as well.

This collaboration results in an album that is seldom direct. Several songs seem to float on an endless yet almost calm sea. It gives the singer the opportunity to deliver her songs in the calmest of ways. Squirrel Flower aims for the mind, and not for the throat of her listeners, to make a lasting impression. On the guitars there seems to be endless reverb and delays added to the level just before the sound is repeated. As if recorded in a giant marble, empty bathroom. All this results in a dreamlike state. As if Williams sings to us from the other side. Audible but not real. In a way I can call it ambient music. It's there but in a way it is not. The music is so fleeting. Listen to 'Belly Of The City'. I can imagine the music breaking into little pieces, leaving only the empty spaces in between the vocal lines. Sung as if in church by the way. Is it coincidence that it contains the lines: "I never worshipped another, but I find myself kneeling for you"? I only heard that line after having formed the thought about a church song.

Luckily there's a song like 'Honey, Oh Honey!, where the noise button is used a little. Even at 1"14 minutes it makes exactly the right impression on me. I'm back in the real world for a minute, before taken back to a land of atmosphere and tranquillity in 'Seasonal Affective Disorder'. Instrumental for over two minutes, it is almost more atmosphere than song. The words and vocal turn it into a song of a minimal kind.

Slowly Dutch singer Amber Arcades comes to mind. She dares to play with atmosphere like Squirrel Flower does. The difference is she also dares to rock out more. Rock is far from I Was Born Swimming. The lack of diversity makes it hard to sit out the whole album in one go, I have to admit. That does not mean that it impresses me less. The musicianship and daring of 'Home', the 8th song on the album, is simply impressive.

With I Was Born Swimming Squirrel Flower has released an album for those who like to really immerse into an album. There is no alternative but to listen. Not listening results in not noticing, not enjoying. What a way to present yourself to the world for the first time.

Wo.

You can listen and order to I Was Born Swimming here:

https://squirrelflower.bandcamp.com/album/i-was-born-swimming


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g