We’ve a beautiful video premiere today from Evelyn Taylor and Nicholas Frampton who perform as the duo Field Division. I’ll be honest, when I was offered the video premiere Hollow Body Weather I was immediately smitten by Evelyn’s dreamy vocals and their rich pastoral sound. They forge that connection to the land that the likes of Fleet Foxes and the Bowerbirds have done before them. Where the Bowerbirds songs were inspired initially by the swamps of South Carolina (see our 2012 interview) Evelyn and Nicholas take their inspiration from the vast prairielands of Des Moines, something which is hard to visualise if you’ve never set foot in such wilderness landscapes.
Their explanation touches on that feeling we feel when presented with the vast size of nature which places our own existence in perspective:
“We grew up in Iowa and draw inspiration from the sprawling prairielands of our home of Des Moines, and I credit our Midwestern roots for our dreamy folk sound. The music is grounded in the peace that comes from years in Iowa, surrounded by miles of fields and sky. It’s a humble sort of beauty which influences our sound in such an expansive way. Lands and outdoor spaces strongly factor into our songwriting, and while the songs on our debut release are a reflection of our Iowa roots, we wanted to explore the spaces surrounding our new Tennessee home with this music video, and we shot ‘Hollow Body Weather’ with Gear Seven Creative in the beautiful wild Tennessee land outside Chattanooga.”
The video works so well on many different levels, refracted lights, hazy filtered scenes compliment the recollection of past memories ‘waking dreams’. The stunning river and waterfall appear as the song shifts and builds and as Evelyn’s vocals rise so does the emotive forces of the scenery you’re presented with…it’s stunning and highlights their poetic songwriting. If you can recall seeing your first vista from a mountain top for the first time, you’ll know what I mean. It’s beautiful…
Their debut 5-song EP Reverie State, out on CD, vinyl and DL on October 28th, was produced by Konrad Snyder (Kopecky Family Band, Neulore, Night Beds) and Benjamin Kaufman (Night Beds), and mastered by Joe LaPorta at Sterling Sound in NYC, with back-up vocals on “Modest Mountains” by Milo Greene’s Andrew Heringer.
Check their website here: http://www.fielddivisionmusic.com/