At long last, Ball of Wax has reached New Zealand! Or at least, New Zealand has reached Ball of Wax. This endeavor has been around long enough that I used to discover new artists on MySpace, but these days I’ve been hearing about some wonderful artists via Twitter. Recently somebody in my feed retweeted or liked a tweet about Fathom, this artist who makes her own instruments* and incorporates them into beautifully adventurous songs, and I was intrigued enough to check out the video for “The World to Breathe,” which inspired me instantly to reach out with an invitation to submit to Ball of Wax. And I’m so glad I did!
This song makes great use of its over seven-minute running time, never sticking with one idea for too long, moving ever-forward almost breathlessly yet confidently, her clear, confident voice bringing us along with her through every twist and turn. And then, after one last big rush, we are given some time at the end to catch our breath with a gorgeous instrumental coda. (If you’re at all familiar with my own music you probably know I am a big fan of instrumental codas. And intros. And bridges.) It starts with just acoustic guitar breezily strumming an intricate progression, slowly building back up to the full ensemble over the course of a couple minutes before gradually fading out, and it feels like the musical equivalent of a sunrise. I certainly hope we can bring some more Fathom to you in the future, but there’s also a whole album you can check out right here.
*For those of you who don’t get the physical copy of Ball of Wax and won’t see this in the liner notes, here is the instrumentation for “The World to Breathe” – much of which can also be seen in that video:
Instruments built by Fathom: ululuophones (membranophones), lyretars (bowed stringed instrument), hurdy gurdy, drum kit
Found/upcycled instruments: notebook, cookie tin, galvanised pipe, glass bottles (as percussion), glass bottles (as flute), egg cup
Conventional instruments: acoustic, electric and slide guitars, fretless bass, keyboards, mandolin