Constantly evolving London-based eight-piece caroline return with their first new music in three years, ‘Total euphoria’. The group’s new output sees them evolving with the influence of new technologies & avant-garde producers. ‘Total euphoria’ features Jasper Llewellyn and Magdalena McLean singing in unison above the fray while the swirling sound beneath them builds and builds in intensity – trombone, bass clarinet and harmonium infusing themselves one at a time in layers as the sound hurtles towards escape velocity. Then, just as a sharp upward swoop of violin threatens to push things stratospheric, comes a colossal counterblast of electronic noise that cuts it all in two. That overwhelming plummet takes over entirely for a few seconds, before the initial attack of guitars and drums rallies back upwards in turn, the two sounds pushing and pulling in mid-air, then finally dovetailing – two sonic worlds moving as one. The track is well-titled; ‘Total euphoria’ delivers just that.
The song’s accompanying video was directed by Parker Corey (known for his work in the group Injury Reserve)
caroline – ‘Total euphoria’
The group explain the origins of ‘Total euphoria’, “The first iteration of this song was played as a three (Mike, Casper and Jasper) in 2020 while we were writing our first album. It was a similar style to the guitars in the back half of Natural Death – off-kilter/syncopated – but played much wonkier and messier, and then with a broken rock beat kind of erupting at different moments. It somehow didn’t quite fit with the music we were writing/recording at the time but there was a kernel in there of something we felt we would want to explore later.
Eventually it became one of many things that we’ve happened upon that felt good to play for 20 mins straight. This one felt especially good as it was very consistently ‘loud’ and full on which was maybe a bit unusual for us at the time, and also everyone was playing these three different rhythms simultaneously which made it feel endlessly cyclical. Jasper then took the main chords and wrote a load of really nice top line stuff for singing, then we put together all the other parts with the rest of the band and finalised a structure. We realised the golden potential of how good it sounded with Jasper and Magda singing in unison also as a style, and they wrote some extra vocals and harmonies together.”
caroline’s founding members Casper Hughes, Jasper Llewellyn and Mike O’Malley began playing together in 2017. Llewellyn and Hughes met at university in Manchester, and on moving to London invited Llewellyn’s old friend Mike O’Malley to form a group, rehearsing in the upstairs room of a South London pub. As the band’s sound kept expanding, so too did their line-up, eventually becoming an eight-piece completed by trumpeter and bassist Freddy Wordsworth, violinists Magdalena McLean and Oliver Hamilton, percussionist Hugh Aynsley and flute, clarinet and saxophone player Alex McKenzie. By the time the cast settled towards the end of 2019, the songs too were expansive and emotive pieces, their rich palette drawing on a mixture of choral singing, Midwestern emo and O’Malley and Llewellyn’s roots in Appalachian folk. Their debut self-titled album caroline (released in Feb 2022) and mixed by John ‘Spud’ Murphy (black midi, Lankum) featured in The Quietus and Loud & Quiet magazine’s Top 5 Albums Of The Year in 2022, and they were also cited as one of the Top 10 New Artists in Rolling Stone magazine.
Further praise for caroline at press:
“Bewitching debut from the London-based octet, blending string-driven Appalachian folk chants with spacious post-rock” – Uncut 8/10
“caroline provide an ideal soundtrack for the reflection needed to push forward again” –Pitchfork
“It seems no task is too ambitious for caroline right now” – Loud & Quiet 8/10
“This is a fitting soundtrack to the times in which we’re living” – Shindig 8/10
“Deeply emotional deconstructed post-rock with heavy doses of orchestral beauty… incredible” – Stereogum
caroline are – Jasper Llewellyn – acoustic guitar, cello, drums, vocals. Mike O’Malley – electric guitar, vocals. Casper Hughes – electric guitar, vocals. Oliver Hamilton – violin. Magdalena McLean – viola, vocals. Freddy Wordsworth – trumpet, bass. Alex McKenzie – clarinet, flute, saxophone. Hugh Aynsley – drums, percussion.
