I remember the first month of dating the person who is now my spouse: Testing waters, figuring out ways to spend time together, scoping each other out. Everything felt tenuous. I meant to come up with a grand way to say “I love you” and then blurted it out about three weeks into dating, as she was pulling away in an Uber.
That unsteadiness but forward motion makes itself present in the new track “I See You From Here” from Copenhagen-based trio Bending Backwards. The first single from their debut album still and quiet, brother, are you still and quiet features repeating droning pads, repeating guitar riffs, uncommon time signatures, and the atmospheric vocals of Frederick Blæsild Vuust. These parts come together to create a sense of musical limbo. Over its six minutes, it kept me on my toes, leading me towards a sense of comfort, but unable to fully vibe just in case something were to change in the next moment.
Both in the music and the lyrics, the song marks the middle point between intimacy and distance, contentment and carefulness, vulnerability and guardedness. The words could trace the steps of a first date: Two people share lunch in a Berlin apartment, but sit apart from each other. They go to a nearby park and have a moment beneath a plum tree, but then one of them walks away on their own. They have moments of both sweetness and stunted silence. And in each of their hearts, there is desire as well as fear.
Bending Backwards – consisting of Vuust (vocals), Halfdan Stefansson (guitar), and Johannes Østlund Jacobsen (drums), do a fantastic job of capturing fledgling emotions of love in their new track, making for a fine preview of what’s to come on their debut record dropping soon. It’s sure to make you recall some old emotions, or at least help you know what it’s like to feel them. Take a listen to “I See You From Here” below.
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Written by Will Sisskind
