EP Review: Ellie Schmidly - ''Blossom & Bone'

Nashville singer songwriter Ellie Schmidly has released her timeless indie folk debut EP, 'Blossom & Bone'.

Ellie Schmidly's 'Blossom & Bone' opens with the mellow hums and warm minimal arrangements of 'One More Wave'. As Ellie's gorgeous vocal welcomes her listener into her narrative, depsite the kindliness in her voice, there's a bittersweet pessimism within the lyrics and some of the arrangements that makes her listener stop and contemplate.

While contemporary, 'One More Wave' makes use of a traditional strings arrangement composed by  Jordan Critz  and Todd Gummerman (of MuteMath) who  alsoproduced the EP, that adds a depth, drama and beauty to the song as it transitions between dreamy sophistication and nostalgia. There's also a sense of bleakness in the dawning realisation that all good things must come to an end; intended as a reminder to appreciate life's moments of joy more fully.

EP title track 'Blossom & Bone' delves deeper into the dreamlike theme the EP draws upon. There's a  darkness to the song, but the track pulls its listener into a hazy, ambient, distorted soundscape; experimenting on the foundation of vintage indie folk roots perfectly.

'Where To Begin' offers a little bluesy sunshine, and soul as the EP returns to its lyric-driven ethos, and Ellie's vocal blissfully washes over her listener. 'Edelweiss' and 'Wild Is The Wind' once again show how effortlessly Ellie channels and packages pure sounds of the past for 2018 listening.

'Winter' then wraps the EP up, wonderfully tying together the romanticised, meticulous, classical flourishes, the vintage heart to her sound, and the accessible indie folk underpinnings that sees  'Blossom & Bone' in its entirety suspended in time; neither dated nor commercial; simply all style, all class and all emotion.

Words of Karla Harris