Cinder Well, the musical project of Amelia Baker, has shared “Beyond The Pale“, the second single from her forthcoming album A Blooming Body, out 17th July via Hen House Studios. The track arrives with a music video directed by Chelsea “Cheech” Moosekian, conceived by Baker from a dream she had the night before she described it aloud and decided it was strange enough to attempt.
“A hangover, a break-up, a migraine, a confessional,” says Amelia. “This song features the legendary Greg Cohen (Tom Waits, John Zorn) on bass, alongside my dear friend Phillip Rogers (Hayley Hendrickx) on drums. The music video concept came to me in a dream, and as I relayed it aloud in the morning, I figured it was weird enough to actually try. Thanks to Cheech for making the video come to life, and for running around Los Angeles carrying a box full of water with me.”
A Blooming Body is Baker’s fifth release as Cinder Well, following 2023’s Cadence — which we made our Artist of the Month at the time, describing it as “folk music with a widescreen vision and a gothic flourish.” The new album marks a shift in how she works: Baker co-produced and mixed alongside Harlan Steinberger at Hen House Studios, and took a more hands-on role in the arrangements than on previous records. Where violin once carried most of the melodic weight, A Blooming Body brings in horns, synths, e-bow and other textures. Baker also recorded initial guitar and vocal takes live, wanting the music to carry that sense of presence.
The album’s contributors extend well beyond the “Beyond The Pale” session: Pete Olynciw, Amy Sanchez, Dylan Desmond of Bell Witch, and C.P.N. Hollywell of Twisted Teens all feature. By comparison to the more sequential, diaristic feeling of earlier records, Baker describes A Blooming Body as “glimpsing scattered vignettes of a whole world.” Her lyrics here push into what she calls the “harsh mundaneity that life can carry” — heaviness located not in sonic density but in the weight of ordinary experience.
Baker has also recently composed the original theme song and score for Small Prophets, the BBC Two series written and directed by Mackenzie Crook, which aired in February.
A Blooming Body is available to pre-order now.
https://cinderwell.bandcamp.com/album/a-blooming-body