In early 2007 fate brought Emma Hill and Bryan Daste together via a Craigslist ad. Daste was a recording engineer at Magic Closet Studios in Portland, OR, and Hill had come in to record her first professional demos after a recent move from her home state of Alaska. Nearly twelve busy years, six well-received albums, and countless tour miles later, they are back with the release of their 7th studio album, Magnesium Dreams. While writing songs that are emotionally charged and lyrically focused has always been Hill’s passion, with Dreams she has pushed her boundaries with genre, vulnerability, and writing style more than ever before.
These days Emma resides in Anchorage, Alaska, while Bryan still calls Portland home. The pair have most recently completed a tour around the western US states. The release of their new album, Magnesium Dreams, proves that the duo are still going strong and pushing creative boundaries, weaving together songs with sonic dreamscapes, Parisian jazz, and indie-pop ballads into a single cohesive work. Critics have compared the duo to Gillian Welch and David Rawlings and they are known for being some of the hardest-working touring artists in the circuit.
From her roots of growing up in the small Alaskan village of Sleetmute to her worldwide travels, Emma has worked hard to secure a name for herself as a force in the music world. Splitting her time between tour and working within the local Anchorage music scene, she’s shown her dedication to keeping the music alive wherever she goes. With the addition of Daste’s expansive talent, the pair have consistently produced music that speaks to the soul. With the release of Magnesium Dreams it feels like the duo is making a definitive statement.
Glide is proud to premiere the official video for Emma Hill’s “With Time” (below) a picturesque treat with gypsey nods over dark subject matter that Hill describes as “the story of dealing with someone you love being an addict. Emma Hill brings a vital element of baroque folk to listeners’ ears, offering up a mix of stunning simplicity.
The video was animated and filmed by Eric Power who describes…
“Dire wanted to explore the themes of addiction and loss that exude from Emma’s haunting song. I decided to split the narrative between the ill-fated and the one left behind and approached it as a snapshot of a day in the life for them. I wanted to focus on their memories of good times they shared paired with the looming presence of the vices that would eventually tear them apart. I was excited to use such a soft medium, felt stop motion, to tell this tragic story. It seemed fitting to pair a bleak tale with the warm textures of the fabric. The complicated and sometimes conflicting emotions of grief and regret was easier to represent physically, almost like a blanket our character wraps herself in to try and escape the unfortunate reality of her situation.”
One Response
This song is hauntingly beautiful.