photo credit: Mathew Parri Thomas
Bill Fay has today shared a Julia and Mike McCoy directed video for ‘In Human Hands’.
The latest single from Fay’s critically acclaimed recent album Countless Branches, the accompanying video paints a poignant backdrop to a song that deals with the detrimental and divisive effect human hands can have on the world.
Writing in Uncut, Erin Osmon noted on the recording process between producer Joshua Henry and Fay:
“Tape was rolling when Fay played it through on piano, his voice soft and close. Henry preferred to leave the song in that state, drawing the listener in with Fay’s clear-eyed and soulful inflection as he sings. It’s an invocation of the posture that makes Countless Branches such a compelling listen, vivid scenes of nature and the human condition presented with minimal fuss”.
Sounding more sparse and succinct than his previous records, Countless Branches collects compositions drawn from the trove of material Fay has amassed over 40 years.
Unfinished songs emerge with newly written words and melodies on Fay’s recurring themes – nature, the family of man, the cycle of life and the ineffable vastness of it all – as if they had been lying in wait to find their place in our current zeitgeist. The resulting ten songs are as pointed and poignant as anything he has ever recorded.
