Music Monday: Carmody 'Imperfect Constellations'

South London singer Carmody has a new album out, Imperfect Constellations.

Carmody (full name Jessica Carmody Nathan) is a long time collaborator with Tom Misch, indeed she co-wrote the classic transpontine anthem South of the River. Both Tom and sister Laura Misch appear on the album, and grew up in the same Peckham Rye/East Dulwich border zone as Carmody.

She has previously described her songs as 'Wandering folk electronic beat-filled musings' and that kind of captures it, though on this album the beats are mostly pared back.

The album's title refers to the 'imperfect constellations' of our relationships with friends, lovers and families. Bereavement at the loss of her father is one theme but so are the positives of kinship in this case in a cosmopolitan multicultural context. The album includes recordings of an aunt speaking Hebrew and a refugee brother speaking Persian. There is a loose spiritual longing, perhaps hinted at by the astrological art work.

Anyway it's all a beautiful soundtrack for a languid but melancholy-tinged long hot summer so check it out at all the usual places (read her track by track description here)

Imperfect Constellations

'‘Well’ was written as an attempt to describe the feeling of grief. I said to a friend that I often feel as if I’m at the bottom of a well, surrounded by darkness, but I can see a pinpoint of light above my head, it just feels out of reach. And between these bouts of sadness is the feeling that the world is constant and continuing, no matter anyone’s personal loss. I wrote the track with Tom Misch and the chords he came up with were perfect for the sorrowful feel of the music'.