Brighton duo Grasscut have recently followed up their 2015 album ‘Everyone Was A Bird‘, with another spoken word exploration of Britain with the mini-lp Haunts, out now on the ever brilliant Lo Recordings. From it, we’re absolutely delighted to be able to premiere the video for Human Estuary right here on Backseat Mafia today.
The mini-lp sees stories of places from Brighton to the Firth of Fourth , Surrey to Midlothian accompanied by composer Andrew Phillips’ beautiful string and woodwind writing, decorated with slowed down birdsong here and Kathleen Ferrier samples there.
Of Human Estuary, Phillips told us “I sit still, and the world spins around me” captures the essence of Human Estuary, and “from the main road into The Lanes” means our narrator is talking about Brighton. I think the voice, and the way the woodwind and string lines intertwine, capture how the town used to feel, and will again.”
As the woodwind quartet moves homogeneously around the words in this beautifully serene way, joined by these effortlessly emotive strings which arch and ache over the top of things. While the words paint an everyday picture, there’s something glorious about them as it all moves quietly to a close.
The accompanying video sees stills and video pasted together, some black and white, some colour of a sea front – presumably Brighton, and as it moves slowly from one to another, it seems to fit perfectly with the music. Check it out, here
