Isadora’s Dream search for home on HIRAETH, an expansive piano-led album that cuts right to the core
Isadora’s Dream have released HIRAETH, a 10-song collection brimming with atmospheric piano, soulful guitars and touching lyricism.
The album sees the Adelaide band span the reaches of genre, offering up fusion of everything from dream pop to indie rock and folk. In what becomes a tonal throughline, the album opens with the meditative woodwinds of first track Winds of Change.
What begins as a slice of natural ambience later transforms into something more anthemic, as Isadora’s Dream introduce punchy piano melodies and the harmonic vocals of bandmate Jenn Barrett.
Evidently a muse for the band, piano courses through every song on the tracklist, delivered either ascendantly on the rock-indebted Better Be Going or with a more regal flair, as on The Years Are Passing.
On Sonny, Isadora’s Dream use electronic keys as the basis for more textured instrumentation, with the assist of choral backing harmonies and Barrett’s effortless talky timbre.
While she serves as both the band’s vocalist and keyboardist, Barrett is accompanied by bassist Damien Williams, whose talent is showcased in both electric solos and groovier basslines (as on Nothing To Hold).
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Isadora’s Dream is rounded out by drummer Satomi Ohnishi, whose efforts provide the album’s punchier moments.
Together, the trio deliver an eclectic array of sounds, from the shimmering pop balladry of We Return to the country-folk of penultimate track It’s Not Mine.
Isadora’s Dream leave their mark with Park In York, an album closer adorned in glittery keys and propelled by Barrett’s evocative storytelling.
What all of it amounts to is an exercise in bittersweetness, as the band muse on nostalgia, grief and joy within a stirring soundscape.
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It’s a fitting sonic thesis for HIRAETH, a Welsh word describing the longing one feels for a home to which they cannot return. For all its yearning melancholy, it’s clear that with HIRAETH, Isadora’s Dream have found their place.
Listen to Isadora’s Dream’s new album HIRAETH below.
