14 November 2024 - 0 Comments

Sibling trio Womb have announced their third full length album, One Is Always Heading Somewhere — out 14th March both digitally and on clear vinyl LP via Flying Nun Records.

Today they have shared a new single from the record, Sometimes. Written on the first day of spring, Sometimes emerged with Cello using a loop pedal and repeated phrases. The lyrics were the last Cello wrote in their Aro Valley bedroom before moving to Tāmaki Makaurau.

"Sometimes was formed across Te Aro, Whanganui, Whakatū, and Tāmaki Makaurau – incorporating Georgette’s thundery drums from both the E-mu Drumulator and kit and a synth line Haz had worked on prior. It felt significant to create and record this song across four different places in Aotearoa, which to us resonates with the transitory spirit of the song.” — Womb

LISTEN TO SOMETIMES HERE

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One Is Always Heading Somewhere is Womb’s third album, recorded throughout 2023 and 2024, between living rooms and bedrooms of various houses across the country – from the trio’s hometown of Te Whanganui-a-Tara to their new homes of Whanganui, Whakatū, and Tāmaki Makaurau. Additional recording was done at their dear friend Bevan Smith’s backyard studio, Circle Blue Studios, with mixing done with their new collaborator De Stevens at Roundhead Studios.

“One is always heading somewhere” are words that arose after reading a poem by Ocean Vuong, “Someday I’ll Love Ocean Vuong” – the lines go: “The most beautiful part of your body / is where it’s headed. and remember, / loneliness is still time spent / with the world.”

The album builds musically from where their previous albums – Like Splitting the Head from the Body and Dreaming of the Future Again – left off. While still harbouring their signature emotive and ethereal sound, Womb’s third album sees the three moving toward a more refined style. The arrangements are layered and warm, where Georgette's driving drums are met with percussive samples, Haz’s cinematic synths swirl and rise, and Cello’s textured strings stretch across the tracks. There are also sparser moments that draw you to Cello’s direct and often melancholic vocal delivery.

PRE-SAVE HERE

Lyrically, the songs trace moments across the two years recording the album, drawing on the repeated imagery that characterises Cello’s days: of driving, of dreaming, of light on water, or in the sky. Each song is both personal and allegorical, diaristic and metaphoric – each looking at connection and the things we are tethered to.

“These twelve songs are a collection of moments throughout a span of time in our lives – the oldest song [Erosion] written ten years ago. Because these songs are often diaristic in nature, having self-recorded nearly everything at the various homes we’ve lived in feels very special – I can hear the creak of my old chair, the sound of cars going by on the street I used to live on, the tap of the space bar on my laptop as I finish recording.” – Cello Forrester

The album art is a photograph taken by Haz Forrester on a long bus ride through the top of Te Waipounamu. The image is overlain by four cut-out shapes drawn by Georgette, which reference similar shapes found in diaries kept by abstract artist Hilma af Klint.

Photo Credit: Ted Black

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