New York, NY (Top40 Charts) The new ambient folk single, "
Evermore" from Melbourne singer songwriter, Harp Samuels is the soothing sound of wind chimes crashing about in the growing breeze of a looming storm. A song about searching for the afterlife, "
Evermore" is the light peaking through the dark rain clouds, pushing them away. It is the second single off of his upcoming album, Breathe, due out
September 14.
It all started when he stumbled upon the bell effect and became hooked. The sound provides a constant ring throughout the track, circling around a soft drum, with the bang amplifying as all the elements spiral upward like a peaceful hurricane. The winds gain speed. The drum beat swells inside the eye of the storm as its grey swirl of energy thickens and reaches higher into the sky. Each word, caught in the chaos, tries to find their way out to something more serene. He sings, "I'll seek until I see the place beyond our world." The way one would succumb to the hurricane lifting up and blowing away everything in sight, waiting for the winds to slow down, Samuels has done in the aftermath of his parents' death. While picking up the pieces of what is left behind, he is left searching for the eternal afterlife to provide consolation moving forward.
The album, Breathe, is a step onto undiscovered territory for Samuels. Walking towards a more electronic-driven sound, Samuels takes strong glides into a new musical realm, which is something he values as a musician. He says, "My whole life I've loved spacey kind of electronic music, and synth based stuff so I decided to go for it! I used a Roland synthesizers, played in the beats with my fingers, a lot of vocoder, and often live manipulated the sounds during the recordings to get different vibes tonally and to keep some sense of the 'natural.'" His eagerness to expand and morph into new things musically is a representation of how he views life, as a constant cycle of changing and adapting. Breathe, inspired partly by feelings of dealing with grief and finding hope, is his way of adapting. It serves as a means to connect with other people searching for a light through a troubled forest. Life experiences like losing both parents, divorce, travel, and general failure and success have brought Samuels to where he is now. He is not afraid to live freely and experiment. Honesty and rawness are flickers of light on each track, and put together, a bright beaming light strategically placed safely in the center of a dark room.
About Harp Samuels
Harp Samuels is a Melbourne, Australia born singer-songwriter. He has released two EPs, Getting There in 2013, and Colours of Waking in 2015. He then studied in California for a few years before releasing his debut album, Wanting, in 2017. His upcoming album is a testament to the spiritual, contemplative side of himself as a result of the loss of his father. It is also a completely new sound for Samuels, having moved away from his folk- driven past to a more ambient sound without a single guitar on the album. His debut album has over 200K streams on Spotify, and he has been featured on Spotify's Discover Weekly playlist. He also has been featured on MTV unplugged and a banner in Times Square.
Praise for Harp Samuels:
"The sound is so rich, full, and engrossing that it's hard to believe that the music and the message is as straightforward as it is. But it is, and that's the secret to Samuels' artistry. He's a disciple of beauty in all its forms, and his records are arrows right to the heart of his fans." - Dopecausewesaid
"There are some spine-tingling moments in the song. It's thoughtful and comforting. It has a spiritual inclination that is sure to pull in some listeners. I can't imagine hearing this in a cathedral (but I'd love to hear it)." - Ear to the Ground
"The start-stop arrangement of Harp Samuels' "Wanting" sounds like the distant fragility of Jeff Buckley's guitar work run through a latter-day Bon Iver-esque mood filter. Soul-inflected vocals, a la Moses Sumney, complete the arrangement." - Independent Clauses
"He is one of the most inspiring artists that I know; he is also a photographer and a true Renaissance man." -
Queen Beetch
"Sweet as summer fruit but underpinned by longing, they're redolent of stripped-down records by
Bon Iver and
Sigur Ros while imitating neither. These are statements of universal love and salves for emotional wounds. Harp Samuels is an angel on the shoulder of his listeners, purring words directly into their ears, and their minds. He engenders a feeling of intimacy and exclusivity: people who hear him tend to want to keep him like a secret. But his music belongs to the world." - Vents Magazine
"An incredible singer/songwriter with seemingly limitless depths."" - Mitch Mosk, Atwood Magazine
"Samuels bares his soul in the haunting way that only music can do. The lyrics are few and far between, yet they manage to encapsulate the same amount of emotion, or even more, than most ballads." —Karina Marquez, Imperfect Fifth
"That slow, soulful build-up is so worthwhile." —Sounds of Oz
