Last month, we premiered the self-shot video for Ne Pleure Pas, Jeannette, a track from À Feu Doux, the forthcoming new release from Kevin Fowley, a Franco-Irish musician based in Dublin.
As previously mentioned, À Feu Doux features four songs—French lullabies and traditional folk songs dating back to the 14th century. He has just shared the video for Aux Marches Du Palais, the final track and also our Song of the Day.
‘Aux Marches Du Palais’ is a subtle yet stirring vocal and tender guitar (Fowley often just plays with his thumb for a softer, rounder tone) it ends with a tale of a woman and a cobbler who fall in love. They make plans to sleep in a square bed so big that a river runs through it, and all the king’s horses drink from the river, and there are flowers at every corner of the bed. It’s here that they’ll sleep together until the end of the world. It feels like a fitting ending to a record that, in many ways, began its journey rooted in Fowley’s own memories of sleep, with the hushed melodies of a loved one soothing him night after night as a child.
The sense of nostalgia that pours from this song is underlined by its accompanying video, composed of excerpts of old family films recorded on Super 8 by Kevin’s great-grandfather in the 1960s, well before he was born. It enhances the unvarnished feel and intimacy of the music on this release.
“Having the time and the space to record at home helped capture the atmosphere I was looking for,” Fowley says. “I wanted to keep in the room noise, the chair and floorboard creaks. It gives a sense of time and place. Real night time music”.
Pre-order À Feu Doux via Basin Rock (Vinyl) | Bandcamp (releases 26 July 2024)
Live launch – 8th August at The Cobblestone, Dublin (tickets)
https://kevinfowley.wordpress.com