Asthmatic Harp - Things We Learned To Live With

Nov 8

Things We Learned to Live With is a Neo folk EP, recorded over the course of a year by Danish born, Glasgow based songstress Hannah Fredsgaard-Jones aka Asthmatic Harp.

Following on from the critically acclaimed Lost Astronaut, which was given 5/6 stars in the major Danish Music Magazine Gaffa who labelled it as “Pop Music that takes it a step further”, Hannah set to work writing and recording Things We Learned to Live With, a collection of intricately arranged contemporary indie folk ballads.

During the same year she was a resident artist at the Roundhouse where she played the 1,700 seated capacity main stage as the opening act for Sam Palladio and later travelled to Austin (Tx) showcasing her music alongside the American The Voice contestant Josh Halverson.

Collaboration is a key feature of Asthmatic Harp’s work. The EP features appearances from Amy Winehouse Foundation artist Sophie Kilburn and fellow Roundhouse artist Laurence Morgan from the London band Kid Jupiter. The track Limbo is based on a poem by Manchester based queer writer and performer Roma Havers. Things We Learned to Live With also features select international musicians like Ruth Shave (Modern Vampires) on synth and backing vocals, New York based percussionist Kendall Perry, Dutch Julia Koelmans on piano and D’Addario Single Reed Prize winner Heather Ryall on clarinet.

Things We Learned To Live With was recorded solely in the best DIY manner, mixed and mastered by Sam Smith in Glasgow’s Green Door Studio and was released on Wednesday 4 November.

After having the pleasure of reviewing two of the tracks earlier in the year this was an EP that I was really looking forward to and I wasn’t disappointed.

When asked about opening track Bird of Paradise Hannah says:

It was one of the first straight up love songs I wrote. At the time I think I had this rather snobbish idea that being a singer/songwriter writing love songs on my guitar was a cliché that I did not want to subscribe to so I kept the song hidden away in a folder on my laptop for all this time.

Birds of Paradise is a real joy to the ears, with it’s gorgeous glittery harp, gently strummed guitar and horns gently set an absolutely beautiful melody that allows Hannah’s vocals to shine.

One of the strengths in Hannah’s writing is that her lyrics draw beautiful pictures of the stories she tells, Birds of Paradise is a love song and right from the off Hannah uses some metaphors to portray the colours of being in love when she sings “let’s walk through the greenhouse, travel through time and see a Bird of Paradise, you’re telling me it’s in your parents' backyard, brightly coloured birds in flight bluish green eyes”.

I also love the verse “there is the heat of love, the pulsing rush, magic to make the sanest man go nuts, I’ll be the one to warn you…”.

Birds of Paradise is a stunningly beautiful opener to the EP.

The second track is To The Boats, when asked about the inspiration behind song, Hannah said:

To The Boats is a song dedicated to friendship. It speaks of longing for an embrace from a close friend. It pictures the separation, either physical or emotional that can occur between two people, once inseparable. It is a song about the intimacy of hearing “I wish you were here” whispered gently through a mobile phone and received through the vibrations in your ear.
My childhood friend had been in a horrible accident with a bad concussion. For days, I was unsure whether she would ever return to her usual self. I was worried that she had hit her head so badly that all our mutual memories were gone. Using a selection of book titles as the starting point for my writing, helped me find a language for what I could not express in my own words. As soon as the lyrics started forming, the rest of the song just came dancing out of nowhere.

To The Boats is a beautifully haunting track, introduced by the gorgeous harp strings it has an enchanting dream like melody, and oh my god the vocals from Hannah and Sophie are nailed on straight from the outset. They are sung so softly yet purposeful, I was wondering which cloud the angels were sitting on, it’s just delightful and ethereal.

Lyrically it paints that same dreamlike feeling, the opening lines are “tree by leaf deep waters, I wish you were here with me, stone by stone outweighs us, I wish you were here with me” as if someone was imagining a conversation with a dear friend.

The final lines echo the fear of perhaps the memories of a friendship being lost and the struggles to keep them afloat, the words sung exquisitely are “Tiptoe over the bridge to memories we lost to fights we fought and things we learned to live with burning into the night I can’t swim or reach you, I can’t swim or reach you on a lake with no name”.

Next up is Limbo and it’s a quirky catchy indie folk song based on a poem by Manchester based queer writer and performer Roma Havers.

The two artists Asthmatic Harp and Roma Havers first met in the basement of a Nottingham pub where they were both performing at a Spoken Word event.

The poem itself was written in a week, mostly overnight in a bath in Hull (it was one of those days). Limbo balances on a knife edge between ‘I need you’ and ‘I don’t need you’. It portrays the dizzying limbo between comfort and pain in a break-up between lovers.

When asked about the inspiration behind putting music to Limbo, Hannah said:

When I heard Roma perform her poem Limbo I was completely blown away. It was strong, raw and fragile all at the same time and I knew that I had to put music to it. After swapping a ‘CD for a poetry zine’ I hunkered down in my North London flat and straightway wrote the music.

Limbo gives us a contrast to previous track To The Boats, it’s an uplifting gentle indie pop track, it is driven by a great melody created with the combination of guitars, piano, synth and percussion, all beautifully put together like a magical patchwork quilt.

It’s a poem I wasn’t familiar with but it translates to a song perfectly and as always Hannah delivers a gorgeous vocal, turning this piece of poetry into a song for the times.

I love the verse “And if this is a kind of ending let it be a kind one, this terrible birthday present, just a small ruck of ice-shavings after ungrateful slice of blade, gift wrapped in Mondays”.

And the chorus is definitely catchy and will have you nodding your head and singing along to the lyrics “I wanted to hold your hand but I was so far away, and I was distracted by the way your lower lip was surplus to your moon face,
you articulate mime, must you pale that way like a slowly freezing pond?”.

Limbo really highlights the versatility of Hannah as she takes the indie vibe of this track in her stride and confidently demonstrates an ability to cross genres.

Drones over Gatwick is a duet with fellow Roundhouse artist Laurence Morgan. It was written in the aftermath of the drone sighting incidents in Gatwick airport in December 2018 that saw the airport close down the runway and divert and cancel 1,000 flights. The song weaves a politically charged story of isolation and alienation from the personal experience of an airport shutdown.

The track has a really ethereal feel with its auto harp, it elevates you to the point where you feel you could be sitting atop the clouds looking down on the metaphorical drones.

The words are used in metaphors for the language used by politicians and in cultural commentary which leaves Hannah questioning her own place in the universe, picturesquely described by the words “Is it the drones over Gatwick? Is it the constant hum in my ear, or am I too Scandinavian, do I not belong here?”.

The harmonies with Morgan give the track a different feel as it gives a song added drama with the combination of female and male vocals.

Closing track Five Day Forecast meditates on the unpredictability of the weather and twists life sometimes takes like sudden Pandemics and drone sightings over airports.

Once again it has a meandering melody that reels you in and makes you want to listen, that ability to write ear worm melodies is done with prolific success on this EP.

This track is really about the pace that a lot of us live in our current life styles reflected again in the metaphor of the weather when Asthmatic Harp sings “five day forecast winds are sweeping past, fast strong winds soon to batter Britain again”.

And questions whether that pace is needed it leaves you reflecting on what could be gained if we slow our lives down a touch perfectly illustrated by the words “small talk by a bus stop, I was just pretending to be me, it is tricky, two stops that is just enough time to sit and hum in solitude or time to meet someone new” when it describes the pleasures of having an interesting chat with a stranger you inadvertently meet whilst waiting on a bus.

Things We Learned To Live With is possibly the most aptly named title of the year given the adjustments we are currently having to make to our lifestyles as a result of a global pandemic.

It is a glittery collection of hauntingly beautiful songs that will stick in your head, the ear worm melodies, the picturesque lyrics and the gorgeous vocals of Asthmatic Harp will stay long after you have stopped listening.

Two words to sum up the EP ‘deliciously dreamy’.

Tracklist: