It was in 2015 that we last wrote about songtellers Dawn McCarthy and Nils Frykdahl, better known as Faun Fables. We shared O My Stars, taken from their sixth full-length album, Born of the Sun, released the following year. That album reflected on raising children and embracing the wilderness, a family arc that extends through their long-awaited new album. Counterclockwise, arrives on May 30th via Drag City. Self-produced and engineered from start to finish, it celebrates the mundane details of home and family, elevated by a mystical and fantastical perspective, one of becoming young and growing again. As Dawn notes in the album liner notes:
“Time… the most fertile & playful of mediums, though full of mist…
We mustn’t forget time offers itself first as something to be creatively shaped.”
Where some of the album’s songs came from commissioned projects about werewolves, Mother Goose and other fairy tales, their lead single, “Ember Bell”, is rooted in more familial traditions, offering a meditation on the organic complexities of motherhood and pregnancy where Dawn sings of “the dark tinderbox inside of me”. Throughout the album, Dawn and Nils’ vocals are enriched by those of their daughters — Edda, Ura and Gudrin — who contribute on keyboards and percussion as well.
Watch the accompanying video by Lara Miranda.
The album is dedicated with love to Dawn’s late father, Edward ‘Will’ McCarthy, Counterclockwise is an evocation of the essential truth and joy of Faun Fables’ relationship with time, the greatest value they can imagine to give to anyone who listens to their music. Counterclockwise arrives May 30th.
Pre-Order/Save Counterclockwise: https://lnk.to/ffcounterclockwise
