WATCH: Camp Saint Helene Unveils New Single “Racing”
New album from Catskills-based quartet out May 10th
Hailing from Catskill, NY, Camp Saint Helene is a group whose spirit is evocative of a repurposed Christian summer camp that’s been transformed into a sprawling artist colony.
And within that aura, the combination of Elizabeth Celeste Ibarra, Dylan Nowik, Wesley Harper and Alex Wernquest explore the concept of art and expression as human necessities to create a sound that brings a witchy new element to the indie-folk idiom. The group’s new album, Of Earth and its Timely Delights, splits the difference between the freak-folk fantasia of the Arthur Magazine era and the cinematic pulse of Weyes Blood with a collection of songs that’s both thoughtful and experimental.
The new record doesn’t come out until May 10th, but Rock & Roll Globe offers a peek inside the group’s sonic forest with the premiere of the video for its second single, the Cowboy Junkies-evoking “Racing,” today on the site.
“Racing initially came about when Dylan and Wesley sat down to do some songwriting together,” explains Ibarra. “I always somehow end up writing slow, sad songs and we all wanted to play something more exciting for a change. I had a really hard time coming up with lyrics, to the point that we were recording and the song still wasn’t done. So Wesley had some ideas and we wrote the lyrics together. All of us feel heavily inspired by the natural world, so that’s what we centered the song around – feeling humbled by a force greater than ourselves.”
“Racing was written about a time in my life where I didn’t feel connected to myself, but I was able to find stillness in solitude, specifically in the woods,” adds Harper. “It’s a place where we can contemplate pressing questions about our own purpose. There’s this contrast between the crushing weight of responsibility and also complete clarity in that experience.”
For Camp Saint Helene, it was imperative to balance the earnestness of the new LP with some levity on the visual front.
“We took the whole process of recording so seriously that when we were approaching making visuals for this song, we wanted it to be lighthearted and fun,” Ibarra explains. “So we got a good friend to film us on an old camcorder singing together in the middle of the woods and pretty much improved it.”
Of Earth and its Delights was recorded to 16-track, ½” tape, at Basement Floods Records in Catskill, New York.
The group will be on tour throughout the month of May. See live dates below.
VIDEO: Camp Saint Helene “Racing”
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