Brooklyn-based keyboard player and singer Heather Woods Broderick recorded her debut album ‘From The Ground’ in 2009, with the acoustic waltz of much-streamed ‘Turned’ proving to be the key track.
New single ‘Hummingbird Skylight’ is a different proposition – using the spoken word, multi-layered voices, electric piano and the subtlest of electronic percussion to build a completey new sound.
As we struggle to maintain an understanding of the outside world swirling around us, this track is an oasis of calm and unhurried reflection, although the sinister undertones build in the lyric of the latter part of the song ‘…shadows in her hand..her hand in my hand…shadows fall away…steps on my gravestone….’.
Halfway through there are some abrupt electronic handclaps and bursts of sound but the repeating keyboard figure wins through.
Where the tiny hovering bird of the title fits in is never made specific, but the atmosphere pervading this hypnotic track makes you listen again and again.