Avi Engel has shared ‘Garden Of Earthly Delights’, the first single from forthcoming album Seedhead. Taking its name from Hieronymus Bosch’s feverish vision of paradise, earthly pleasure and damnation, the seven-minute track opens with lyrics that immediately sets out its stall: “Slithering star, coruscant worm / burrowing deep in the guts of the earth / I’m cold / and I want to go home”. So far, so harrowing.
From there it unfolds slowly and sparsely, drawing together experimental art song, folk, chamber music and ethereal wave into something stunning, pastoral and bleak. Strings hover around Engel’s voice as themes of climate change, ecological grief and eco-horror emerge through strange, mystical poetry. Beautiful, unsettling music for a world that feels increasingly so.
The Predatory Wasp 