The first time I heard ‘holding’ I wanted to lay on a rock in the winter sun, desperately clutching onto warmth as the wind desperately tried otherwise.
The atmospheric sound of holding creates a fluid world where layered guitars creep in like hanging vines in a dripping cathedral. It's a collision of alternative folk dressed in shoegaze and bedroom pop in a lucid dreamstate.
holding is the project of Esther Olalere, a multi-talented Sydney based artist. On first listen, I instantly thought it was a band working together in perfect sync, creating a sound with gentle touches of Slowdive and Elliot Smith. To find out its Esther laying every track down solo, makes the sound even more impressive. The vocals are layered perfectly, shimmering across an afternoon sky before a storm, while guitar licks drift in and out like brooding clouds. The result is nostalgic sound that’s rough around the edges, drenched in emotion and intentionally raw.
holding is only just finding its feet, releasing their first track last year and six subsequent singles that define a unique sound coherently created in the cracks of a city. Esther noted that the songs tilt between love and anxiety, a determining force most people dangle and dance between. It's this emotion behind the songs that make them feel like they belong in a movie as unpredictable as life.
‘higher’ is the latest single to come out and continues to evoke emotion and beauty in everything it touches. holding is an unpolished masterpiece unearthing itself in every song.
Words by Angus Piper