Babehoven examine what it’s like to see through to the core of someone you love in latest full length, ‘Water’s Here In You’
Words by Matt Keenan
I’ve always loved the ponderous examination of the very intricacies of life which Maya Bon writes about in her music. Babehoven is everything I love about indie folk music and then some, yet manage to live in their own world somehow. In their latest record ‘Water’s Here In You’ Maya Bon and Ryan Albert, the Hudson Valley based duo which make up Babehoven, offer up their take on finding connection, groundedness, and growth in what we all carry within us.
Initially what drew me to Babehoven was working at an internship during college (special thanks to the folks at Terrorbird Media), I got to hear their debut full length ‘Light Moving Time’ which boasts cautiously unsettling instrumentation, melodic vocals, and chugging guitar lines. The record was tastefully produced and stuck out as to me, lying somewhere on the edge between indie folk and indie rock.
At the heart of their latest record, ‘Water’s Here In You’ the duo brings the warmth of home and companionship, offering refuge from the cold to the central focus. I felt the record strikes an intrinsically creative space exposing the difference between the sometimes sonically flat indie rock and more modern indie folk. The satisfying project which Babehoven has come up with boasts an almost solemn, melancholic nature, yet stands triumphantly with songwriting that can be described as a kind of delicate wisdom that a friend might give in a time of need, a reminder of our innate power and ability to move through intensity.
Speaking on the title of the record, Maya Bon explains: “I felt that it encapsulated the meaning of loving through the pain, of seeing into the core of someone,” she continues, “I pictured the blue veins of the human body; how in some ways, they mimic the blue veins of water flowing across the earth. No matter how ferociously the fires of life may burn,” she adds, nodding to the flames that leap on the album’s cover, “we carry the water within us.”
Throughout the record, Babehoven brings you to a space in nature and time which seems to stand still. Bon turns an eye toward human relationships, reflecting on various forms of love, with a gesture towards reconciliation and forgiveness. Something about the examination of the sometimes tricky intricacies of having a relationship with another person is not only something that drew me in, but continues to peak an interest for me throughout my time listening to the record.
Babehoven have delivered yet again with a thoughtfully produced, purposeful, passionate second effort. You can listen to ‘Water’s Here In You’ now on all streaming platforms and connect with Babehoven some more below.
