Nomadic UK duo Samana have marked their 2020 return with the hypnotic and ethereal song “Passing Me By,” a beautiful dusty mountain dream.
Stream: “Passing Me By” – Samana
This is the beauty of improvisation, it is the poetry of the soul.
It’s the deep heat of summer – a time of reverie and fantasy, when our imaginations run wild and our shadows grow long; when the sun, past its peak, is just beginning to fall earlier in the evening and rise later in the morning. It’s an inspiring time of the year no matter where we are in the world, be it somewhere out in the French Pyrenees, deep in the the heart of Wales, or tucked away in a cozy New York City apartment. How better to celebrate this time of year, than with a sun-soaked musical seduction? UK duo Samana have marked their 2020 return with the hypnotic and ethereal song “Passing Me By,” a dusty mountain dream.
I watch you smoke your last cigarette
Laying down in the dying gold pines
All the bodies are heading back South
And we’ll watch the fields of night
The dust it falls on the shrines of flowers
The wooden palms, they hold all the hours
And we’re both dressed in white and walking the same
We’re slaying the essays of love and feeling no pain
And I feel it passing me by
Atwood Magazine is proud to be premiering the music video for Samana’s new song “Passing Me By,” the group’s first single of 2020 and their follow-up to 2019’s debut album, Ascension. Formed in Brighton and currently based in a farmhouse in the Brecon Beacons mountains of Wales, Semana are the nomadic duo of Rebecca Rose Harris and Franklin Mockett. The duo introduced themselves with the majestic debut single “Beneath the Ice” two years ago, and wasted no time in expanding their sound, scope, and artistic identity on their full-length offering.
As the world went into lockdown earlier this year, Samana stole away to the hills of the French Pyrenees mountains, where they wrote, recorded, and produced new music. Released August 27, “Passing Me By” is the smoky introduction to their work during that time – the product of a one off, improvised vocal and acoustic guitar take, laid to 1/4 inch tape. “It is a response to the immediate present, guided by the subconscious; to the velocity of time passing in fragments of visions and feeling,” the band explained upon the track’s release.
Impromptu or not, Rebecca Rose Harris’ unscripted lyrics are poetic and stirring. She drums up immersive visuals that tickle the mind while her voice, melting atop warbly guitars, draws us deep into Samana’s world:
The silent words will get brought down
The soft collapse of the lakes out back
We’re still walking and were all dressed in white
There is a gatepost by the fields you pass at night
And I feel it passing me by
And I feel it passing me by
In a world often defined by movement and activity, Samana find beauty and a sanctuary in stillness.
Their filmic, cinematic music video captures the gorgeous woodland isolation of their hideaway in the mountains. Astonishing, idyllic scenes of gorgeous greens and golden yellows deliver on the promise of a temporary escape; a captivating five-minute refuge and indulgence all at once.
“‘Passing Me By’ is an insight into the stillness of the mind. This song is about processing feeling in an emotional response to the immediate present,” Samana tell Atwood Magazine. “In an old French barn in the Midi Pyrenees, a 1/4 inch tape wraps itself around the reels. Two wooden chairs sit opposite one another, as we sink into our respective subconscious, meeting together in a plane of intuition, telepathy and togetherness.”
The band continue, “The lyrics are carved from a part of the self, emulating ancient statues of rocks, shaped by the water of centuries; that of the foresight of dreams. They conjure the notion of absorbing a moment; its pace, its gravity, processing something wholly, before it shifts into a different contour, a different perspective, a different weight. The full interpretation of these lyrics as a language of the subconscious, so fleeting, so instinctive, will reveal itself to me over time. This is the beauty of improvisation, it is the poetry of the soul. The video imbues this concept, as a visual diary, moving through an ever-changing landscape over the course of a day, connecting the environment to the present, as we pass through both the surroundings from which this song grew, and a mental state of appreciation and observation.”
Samana’s music is transcendent; they have returned to the fore with a hazy, atmospheric outpouring that speaks to who they are as a band: The word “Samana” is an ancient Sanskrit term that, per the duo, speaks of one “who abandons the conventional obligations of social life in order to find a way of life more in tune with the ways of nature.”
In that regard, “Passing Me By” is not an escape – it’s a return; a stunning, summery homecoming full of life and effervescent energy. Call it experimental, call it art rock, call it alt-folk or folk rock; however you personally classify Samana’s music, it is an unequivocally compelling reflection of humanity. Bask in the duo’s intense allure, exclusively on Atwood Magazine!
There is a gilded woman
She stands by the edge
There is a forlorn bird that rises
And we ride through the hills
And I feel it all passing me by
And I feel it all passing me by
And I feel that it’s passing me by
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Stream: “Passing Me By” – Samana
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