Before I Saw the Sea Me and My Friends

• 1Root00:52
• 2Witness03:20
• 3You Came Into My Life03:59
• 4Everybody's Talking04:34
• 5Waiting01:14
• 6When We Were Young03:15
• 7Midnight in Your Kitchen01:38
• 8Before I Saw the Sea05:31
• 9Border in Twilight04:18
• 10The Storm Shall Pass05:00
• 11Lover, Come Back to Me04:53
• Total Runtime38:34

Info for Before I Saw the Sea

This album is about anticipation and change. The moments in which we feel the certainties that hold us securely in place come adrift.

The inception for many of these pieces took place in the first lockdown of 2020, when our diaries were abruptly cleared and the churn of everyday life ground to a halt. Suddenly, there was so much time, in which ideas could percolate uninterrupted, revisited each day without distraction, taking shape gradually in a process that seemed inconceivable before.

We had always assumed that we needed to be in the same physical space to create new music together, but pandemic restrictions forced us into experiments in collaborative writing online we’d never have considered otherwise. These exchanges created a thread to hold onto and a collective sense of purpose, as all else seemed to become untethered.

With returning melodic themes and vignettes weaving throughout the record, and a lyrical expression of times of transformation, this is an album created to accompany journeys when none could be made, in anticipation of the parting clouds.

Emma Coleman, cello, vocals
James Grunwell, bass
Fred Harper, drums, percussion
Sam Murray, clarinet, vocals
Nick Rasle, vocals, guitar, guitalele, piano

Me and My Friends
play soulful, poignant music with a beat, subtly incorporating vintage highlife and afrobeat grooves into elegant folk songwriting. The UK-based quintet create a timeless sound with a global outlook, performed with an infectious energy, and the result is instantly recognisable, highly original and truly genre-defying.

The elegant voice and West African finger-picking guitar style of songwriter Nick Rasle is cradled by stunning vocal harmonies and the evocative combination of cello and clarinet, all underpinned by a rhythm section with a deep sense of groove. This is sun-drenched, euphoric music for both brain and booty.

Their three critically acclaimed albums have been featured on BBC Radio 2, 4, and BBC 6Music in the UK, as well as receiving heavy rotation on FiP and Radio Nova in France. They’ve received plaudits from the likes of Quantic, Giles Peterson, Nubiyan Twist and Robert Luis (Tru Thoughts).

Their whirlwind live show has been a headlining favourite of venues and festivals across Europe, gaining an multitude of discerning fans at home and abroad.

“Unusual instrumental forces create a sublime fusion that combines pastoral dreaminess with the heat of reggae, highlife and Afrobeat sounds” – Songlines Magazine.

This album contains no booklet.