With Sun (aka Alice Hale) is an artist who does not have a prodigious output, but each release is a beautiful vignette into their life. These can be incredibly tender as in ‘Shoebox’ which captures the dichotomy of being cash poor but love rich, and ‘Holding’ which celebrates being a new mother while trying to not lose sight of making music. But then there is ‘Thirteen Weeks’ which talks about coping with the grief and loss of a miscarriage.
‘Go Lightly’ was written after the death of her mother. Alice Hale says, “She left on a beautifully sunny day with the sea in the window, the sun on her face and her children beside her. My son was 7 weeks old and lay sleeping next to her as she left. There was something cyclical and poignant about him being at the beginning of his life, and my mum at the end of hers. There is a simplicity to birth and death – in those moments we realise that love is all that matters. Everything in-between is a footnote”.
Her mother was a writer and lover of language, as well as traditional Irish folk songs and the music of Dylan, Fairport Convention and Ralph McTell. Hale says, “I wanted this song to be something that she would have enjoyed listening to”.
The hesitant delivery of lines such as “We have death and life. You can walk under the clouds or under the sky. I am body and mind. Love is all I have to leave behind” creates a reverence for this musical eulogy to Hale’s mother. The pauses feel reflective and add gravity to the meaning while the arrangement of rolling guitar, keyboard washes and cello create a serene feeling of weightlessness. As with all With Sun songs the harmonies are transcendent and there is a hidden complexity in something that seems effortless. One touching aspect of the song is that the waves that bookend the song were recorded in Portrush, a town on the North coast of Northern Ireland where her mother spent her final years.
One again With Sun has created something replete with grace and depth on a subject that would resonate with anyone who has experienced the grief of losing a loved one. In death, can there be a more fitting tribute than to honour so beautifully the life of the person who gave you life.
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LYRICS:
We have death and life
You can walk under the clouds
Or under the sky
I am body and mind
Love is all I have
To leave behind
In your breath you defined me
Now you’re gone, where do I find me?
With heavy arms go lightly
When time is love
Come find me
With heavy arms go lightly
When time is love
Come find me
Review by Paul F Cook
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