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Music

Guitar licks, finger clicks and water drips, Ross Henry’s The Forester’s House is a mosaic of sound

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Artists find inspiration from a variety of different places. Whether it’s the way the light catches a particular item and is transformed on an easel or how the wind blows in the trees to evoke a fictional landscape. For Ross Henry, this light bulb moment for his EP Forester’s House hit him when he least expected it.

Ross Henry The Forrester's House

Drawing inspiration from the great Wilfred Owen, Ross Henry astounds with his debut EP The Forester’s House.

Western Sydney born, Henry had been toying with ideas for his latest instalment for a while but nothing had seemed to click. From rolling dice to choosing sentences from random books as a starting point, that wave of inspiration that finds an artist immersed in their work never seemed to come. This was until he stumbled across Wilfred Owen’s autobiography.

I read the last letter he sent,” Henry says. “It was from the cellar of the forester’s house. The cellar came across like a beacon or a lantern. I liked it, because there was this universal warmth about it, those spaces are worth celebrating, especially against the backdrop of war. I ended up reading more of his letters and it sparked a theme for the whole EP.

Ever remember as a child getting out every glass you could find, filling it with water and tapping them so you could hear the dance of musical tones from glass to glass? The title track, The Foresters House, is completely reminiscent of these innocent childish moments. The use of water glass, light electronics, which are, carried throughout, welcome the listener to the EP with open calming arms.

Footprints continues this aquarian motif and structural sound-based focus within the EP. Flowing, and river-like trickles and drops, water and its sound is played and explored. Even though Footprints is just over a minute long and quite short for a track, it’s the texturing of the varying water sounds and Henry’s smooth vocals and sporadic guitar strums that hold weight. It’s definitely not your usual song and it’s this uniqueness that enables the track to glisten.

Wilfred Owen has left his biggest inspirational mark on the track 12 letters. Combining twelve different letters from Owen into the track, hence the name, Henry played with his use of words and their own sound as a mean of creating a universal sound. The rhythm is based from one line in the chorus, “We were marooned on a frozen desert.” Matching this rhythm with a mixture of drumming, clicking and vocals defines warm organic electronic music.

Ross Henry launched the EP last week and is hoping to line up some more shows for Sydney and Melbourne. Whilst we wait for this, Henry said he is planning to release a few remixes he is working on soon so keep an eye out for those.

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