I like to believe that it’s easy for me to discover new music, that I naturally attract unknown groups that are asking to be played. However, sometimes…about 50% of the time, I have to do my own research. One of my favorite places to look is Communion. This is a record label that was created by Ben Lovett (the pianist for Mumford & Sons). He and two of his mates started with a pub, of sorts, that supported unknown musicians in London who were not getting the live performance time they needed. From a single venue Communion quickly expanded, adding several spots across England before jumping over the Atlantic and setting up an office in New York. They also host club nights (no I’m not suffering from dyslexia, that’s how they refer to them) in Brighton, Leeds, Newcastle, Glasgow, NYC, Nashville, and Melbourne. Communion still hosts a club night at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London on the first Sunday of each month.
Communion has signed countless artists such as Ben Howard, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Bear’s Den, Catfish and the Bottlemen, and Gotye to name a few. Whenever I’m searching for new music the first place I check is the Communion website. Here they have a lists of all the artists who are currently working with them. This is where I discovered Foreign Fields. If you ever wondered what it would be like for the Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver to make a love child, wonder no more, Foreign Fields is the beautiful result.
Foreign Fields consists of two lads from Wisconsin, Eric Hillman and Brian Holl. On New Years of 2011 Hillman and Holl came together to create their first full length LP, Anywhere But Where I Am. The album is a beautiful mixture of folky guitar licks, breath taking harmonies, with a dash of spacey-ness that blurs the edges. Many of the songs are purely instrumental and create the perfect atmosphere for settling down with a cup of tea in front of the fire. Foreign Fields released Anywhere But Where I Am on Bandcamp the following January where it quickly caught the attention of many listeners.
I managed to find their LP and have been listening to it avidly. I’ve become very impressed with the number of instruments they use on this album. Besides the guitar, I’ve heard keyboards, cello, harp, and violin to name a few. Anywhere But Where I Am has become one of my go-to albums when I’m working and I look forward to what Foreign Fields will be creating in the future.
Check out their website here
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Autumn Micketti 