Where Else by Humbird

Where Else, the new EP from Minnesota indie-folk band Humbird opens gently with softly whispered voices. As these voices begin to collide and overlap, the sound of human vocals begins to flow into water, harmonic drones floating overhead. It’s a viscerally visual sound, an echo of the clear, unbroken silences of the Minnesota woods that first inspired Humbird songwriter Siri Undlin. The eldest daughter of a trial lawyer and Lutheran preacher, Undlin witnessed the power of stories from a young age and began writing music and performing at the age of 12. Born and raised in Minneapolis, she speaks today of a city that’s still surprisingly close to the rivers and forests of the land, the images of her youth in the Midwest coming back unbidden as she travels the earth. In 2014, Undlin undertook a year’s travel through Northern Europe as part of a fellowship, drawing lasting inspiration from Norse mythology, Sami animism and joiks, the Welsh countryside, Paleolithic cave paintings, old world lutherie, and frozen Icelandic landscapes. These inspirations, and inspirations from further travels across five continents, remain in Undlin’s music today, though Humbird is much more of a collaborative process, bringing together the talents of Undlin’s long-time musical partner Dexter Wolfe (from their duo Undlin & Wolfe) with Minneapolis musician Pat Keen (bass/drums) and others. Where Else presents a sound that touches on lodestones as diverse a Bon Iver, Bill Frisell, and Joni Mitchell, a sound meant to reflect a global North, a sense of place tied to the hyperborean realms.

Recorded in Wolfe’s studio, an unheated old church from the 1800s in Minneapolis, the surrounding winter and burgeoning spring seeped through the walls during the months of work. Where Else is the second of a two EP set released in Summer 2017 by Humbird. The first EP, Elsewhere, is a kind of early companion to the current EP, and was released June 2017. Both EPs when taken together present a cohesive vision of modern American roots music set through the lens of a starkly Midwestern perspective, touching repeatedly on Undlin’s own Norwegian-American heritage and her travels in the North. Combining a wintry longing with the warmth of a familiar folktale, Humbird stretches between experimental folk and environmental Americana to embrace the unexpected. This music invites a refreshing dissonance into the house, it leaves breadcrumbs along the path and reflects light back at the stars.

There’s something refreshingly humane about uncertainty; about having the guts to try, even if you might be wrong. This is the central tenant of Humbird’s third full-length album, Right On, a radical ethos in this soap-box age, and an effort worth turning up the amps for, resulting in the project’s most electric, playful, mettled record yet.

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