The release of Sea Wolf’s fifth LP Through a Dark Wood saw the project’s founder making his way out of one dark period and into another—while the record reflects on the end of his marriage, he assured his listeners that everything had leveled out in his personal life by the time the album was recorded and released in March of 2020, which, as you probably know, marked the onset of the COVID pandemic. A year and a half later Alex Brown Church has announced a deluxe edition of this record which sees a bonus EP’s worth of previously unreleased material from the Dark Wood sessions, including the song he’s debuting today called “Reflections on a Grey Dawn.”
Featuring Dustin O’Halloran, who contributes a haunting backing piano to the spare soundscape of acoustic guitar and cello, “Reflections” both builds out the sonic universe established on the record and gives some context for the headspace Church was inhabiting when these songs came together. “We get a lot of foggy mornings in Los Angeles, and I tend to be an early riser,” he explains. “I like to drink coffee and think about stuff, so this song is me doing that. This was one of the earliest songs I wrote for the album, and I’m touching on themes that will later come up on the album—transitions, change, fears.”
Of the song’s collaboration, he adds, “My friend Dustin O’Halloran, who is a pianist and composer, lives walking distance from me and has his own studio, so I took the song to his place and he laid down some beautiful and delicate piano on it. It just gave the song a whole added layer of emotion and haunting beauty, which I just loved.”
Hear the new single below, and expect Through a Dark Wood (Deluxe) out November 19.
