The mystically inclined American indie-folk musician Johanna Warren, now based in Wales, has a fascinating new EP on the horizon. At nine tracks, The Night Of The Wind could just as easily be framed as a full-length album if she wanted. But that's hardly the most interesting thing about it.
The EP is billed as a collaboration with Warren's three-year-old self, 33 years in the making. It's based on The Night Of The Wind, a book she illustrated and wrote at age three, which tracks the activities of a shape-shifting faerie queen known only as "She." (Johanna Warren is nothing if not consistent.) The lyrics are lifted directly from the words she dictated to her mother, Janis, way back when. Speaking of Janis, here's a statement from her:
Often, in the evening, before bed, you’d create songs in the moment and sing them to me. You adored reading books. You drew beautiful narrative pictures and told me about the characters and the story of what was happening. Because you loved doing that, I bought the empty bound books, and you created "The Night of the Wind." You drew the pictures first and then showed me and dictated the story and I wrote it down in the book. I was careful to read it back to you as we went, and I do remember your happy smile when we finished it and read it through.
And here's one from Johanna:
When you’re a little kid fingerpainting, you’re not there judging and criticising every mark. The creative energy flows out of you totally uninhibited. Capitalism is really good at crushing that spirit and strangling the joy out of making art. After ten years of touring and churning out albums, music had started to feel like an anxiety-riddled chore for me. With this EP, I wanted to get back to that childlike place of fun and joy and freedom of expression—no obsessing, no over-working, no judging if it’s "good" or not.
Our first preview of the EP is "Nectar," which you can hear below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Two Serpents / Cloud House"
02 "Caterpillar’s Song"
03 "Gather"
04 "Honeysuckle"
05 "Rainbow Snakes"
06 "Hummingbird"
07 "Nectar"
08 "And the Girl Was Named Fire"
09 "They Went Out Hunting"
The Night Of The Wind is out 4/11. Pre-order it here.
