Weekly Journal

Dark, haunting pop in "Abide" from Old Man Of The Woods

"Abide", a standout piece from Old Man Of The Woods' latest album, Tendrils, is a deeply textural piece of ambient, dark, avant-pop. The 9 minutes, hypnotic sound,  immediately dives in a rich, atmospheric soundscape that feels both organic and haunted. Miranda Elliott's seductive, dark vocals comes from what feels like cracked walls, creating a sense of isolation that is central to the album's concept.

"Abide" 's strength lies in its ability to build a world with sound. Bringing oscillations and haunting textures transform the listening space into a mysterious environment, drawing  into its unique calmness. The song's slow, deliberate pace allows these layers to come over gradually, with each element, from the whispered truths to the atmospheric sighs, feeling deliberate and meaningful. 

"Old Man of the Woods is an ethereal electro-pop experiment in memory and mirage from Seattle-based multidisciplinary artist Miranda Elliott. Marrying the synthesized sounds of her inner world and those carefully collected from the outer world, Miranda molds a sonic locket, filling it with crooned confessions. Steeped in surrealism, romanticism, and horror, she identifies as a ghost, destined to wander in circles, repeating rhythms, alchemizing anguish, until at last she earns her escape from the loop. And yet each step is increasingly poignant, begging the question, is escape even the point? Embracing the levity of such absurdity, whether floating across the stage or whispering airy incantations from ear to ear, she invites listeners to muse and move through immersive, enchanting audiovisual performances. Having toured her debut LP Votives and EPs Dissolve & Devolve across the Pacific Northwest and New York, she’s poised to release her second LP Tendrils this June, a haunting collection of intimate, atmospheric devotionals recorded while an artist in residence with Culterim Gallery at a lakeside abandoned sanatorium outside of Berlin.

Tendrils is a collection of devotionals, written at a yearning distance from their beloveds. It's the recognition of the vines that bind us to all we adore, at times only felt once they become taut, begin to quiver, reverberate, fray, snap, curl. And the realization that there will always be more, weeds crawling through cracks, for those who stay hungry.

Recorded while an artist in residence with Culterim Gallery at a lakeside former sanatorium in Biesenthal, Germany, the album itself is preserved in amber. Any attempt to interfere once leaving erased some essential essence of the estate’s eerie serenity, forcing Elliott to choose peeling walls over perfection. Each room dense with memory, a century-old space intended for healing in isolation, for walks around the lake that Elliott too circled endlessly each day, pen in hand, one’s left to wonder whose tendrils she really writes of, or if we’re all entwined. "

Info:

https://oldmanofthewoods.rocks/

https://www.instagram.com/old.man.of.the.woods/

https://oldmanmiranda.bandcamp.com/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAO0O0GR5XiGjNWQDpuE8AQ/

https://soundcloud.com/old-man-of-the-woods

https://open.spotify.com/artist/0t34b9Zwp6LKji8CbVG9oB

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