One of the most beautiful and original albums of 2021 was Yasmin Williams’ Urban Driftwood. Her new single highlights a shift in her musical journey, which doesn’t come as a surprise when considering her own diverse influences that came into play on Urban Driftwood.
As mentioned previously, she was raised on a diet of R&B, hip-hop, smooth jazz and the go-go funk of Chuck Brown and her use of the kalimba, which she attaches to her guitar’s body, was inspired by early childhood memories of watching Earth Wind and Fire’s Maurice White performing a kalimba solo. Percussion plays an integral part of Yasmin Williams’ music, which, alongside kalimba, includes the percussive elements of tap shoes and finger percussion on the guitar strings – the mastery of which can be traced back to her playing the console game Guitar Hero.
On her new single ‘Dawning’, those percussive elements bloom with the addition of Portland, Maines’ Kafari on rhythm bones, and Nic Gareiss’ percussive dancing (One of Dance Magazine’s “25 to Watch,”) while the addition of voice, courtesy of Aoife O’Donovan maybe offers the most significant musical shift, the voice is used as another instrument, which creates a warm ambience. This is an early glimpse of what’s to come with a new album planned for release early next year via Nonesuch Records.
On ‘Dawning’, Yasmin says:
“‘Dawning’ has multiple meanings for me: the dawning of my professional music career and a new love in my personal life, the dawning sky that appeared when I first started writing this song, and me smiling to myself with dawning recognition that I get to create music that I love for a living and share it with the world. This song represents a major shift in how I approach my music and expands the possibilities of what my songs can be,” Williams says.
“Composing ‘Dawning’ was a revelation for me in how significantly my life has changed in the last few years, both professionally and personally, and signing with Nonesuch Records exemplifies these changes in the best way possible,” she continues. “I’m super honored to be working with such an outstanding, well-respected label and to join their exceptional artist roster. I’m equally grateful to Aoife O’Donovan, Kafari, and Nic Gareiss for contributing their talents to this song. Working with a label and artists of this caliber is extremely exciting and I can’t wait to share more music, and a new record, soon.”
Watch the accompanying video (Director: Jonathan Howard Assistant Director: Michael Srisuwan), which, like the track, has had a lot of thought put into it. Like the song, the video has some beautiful moments interspersed with drops of tranquillity, peace and calm, highlighted by Yasmin pouring water on Dahlias, walking in a meadow or lost in the sheer pleasure of being out there in nature. Sonic shinrin yoku…
Stream it here: https://yasminwilliams.lnk.to/dawning