by Paddy Kinsella

I have had few more reliable companions than Elkyn’s (FKA Elk) beech since hearing it last summer. Though just 21 minutes in length, few other records provide such escape. Over meditative, unfurling fingerpicks, Joey Donnelly’s intimate whisper coaxes you into the half-light, arriving like a red sky crowning off a summer’s day. Newly remastered and reissued on Tambourine Machine, beech remains entirely enveloping, a refuge in a nerve-wracking world.

On winter, the video of which we are premiering above, we find a man incapable of seeing a way out – ‘Tell me when this will be done,’ he yearns – resigned. The guitar shares the quality of water running in the distance; its permanence is as comforting as it is alluring. Just over two minutes in length, it’s telling of Donnelly’s logic-defying ability to suspend in so little time with so few variations. winter is a compelling indication of the transportive slumber that awaits on beech. Go drift.

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