Bibio, musical alias of Stephen Wilkinson, has a new track out today entitled “Curls.” The English artist’s last full-length, his ninth, was 2017’s ambient Phantom Brickworks. He followed that up with 2018’s Phantom Brickworks (IV & V) EP.

“Curls” finds Bibio leaning into his folk-centric tendencies and shedding most traces of synthesizers, like the discarding of layers in spring. Here he embraces the softer sonic palettes of his last record while re-incorporating his own vocals. His gentle croon levitates amongst the track’s airy strings and wind instrumentals. This is the sound of an early morning stir, a permeating sense of new beginnings.

The artist–celebrating nature, daily minutia and the timeless nature of connection–had this to say of the new song:

Lyrically, the song is inspired by a collection of separate memories, observations and fantasies, seemingly unrelated but tied together by a theme of admiration of those small things in life. When I look back on recent years, some of the things that seem to be significant to me are these small observations and experiences, like the smell of rain on wool or fresh air captured in a person’s hair after coming inside from a walk outside. These moments can be joyous and profound at times, a reminder of what life can be about, both meaningful and beyond meaning, which is a reminder for me that wordless songs often seem to say more than ones with lyrics. These types of everyday moments can feel more significant or memorable than qualifications and ambitious achievements, they extend into the ancient and beyond one’s own inner world; the same consciousness was probably experiencing the same many millennia before us. There are many good things in life that you can have too much of, except for fresh air, so perhaps that’s why it feels so welcome when it clings to us, and therefore, like these other little daily observations that resonate with me so much, it’s worthy of a mention in a song.

Listen to “Curls” below.