Watch Emily Jane White's haunting "Washed Away" video

"Washed Away" – filmed by Kristin Cofer – is off Emily Jane White's forthcoming album Immanent Fire out November 15th on Talitres. 

"Washed Away" is about how we are severed from our natural world, how pervasive communication through technology dominates so much of our lives. This song speaks to the creative importance of spending time in nature and how it must be seen and valued. It's a relationship. I feel this disconnect is directly linked to the climate crisis and ongoing destruction of the planet.” – Emily Jane White

Emily Jane White – Immanent Fire

Sometimes called "folk noir" or "dark folk," critics have been drawn to Emily Jane White’s “Big Sur goth” since her debut in 2007. Over her last five albums Emily has moved in  darker and more political direction culminating in her new album, “Immanent Fire”.

Written over a two year period,  “Immanent Fire” recognizes our moment at the precipice of species annihilation, as she guides her listener through the feeling of life on a planet at the brink of destruction. In this work, addressing our shared condition, White honors the sacred, the earthly, and all that is deemed feminine, even as these very elements are threatened with the violence of contemporary systems of power: patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism together conspire to ravage and to exploit natural world and its sacred beings, to subordinate women and other gendered people--the vanquishing of both the feminine and nature in and of itself. This is the dominant paradigm of modernity that feminist spiritual philosopher and witch Starhawk has named the “war on immanence.” Speaking directly from the fires incinerating California, White laments the destruction of the sacred feminine and the earth at once: “And she a holy vessel breathes/And you sit and watch her bleed/And you, torched a hole in the sky/And you, watched your earnings fly/And you, sit there as she lies/In blood, right before our eyes.”

Ten songs, all written in minor keys, present a deepening storm of melody that offers the hopeful ray of Emily’s voice as the waves of rhythm crash and dance around her. Just before—or perhaps after—the despair seems to overwhelm, her vocals open up and bloom like a lens flare, creating an ecstatically painful emotional brilliance that the listener clings onto with pleasure. Her voice is the listener’s guide, a steady and reassuring presence as they march through eerie landscapes, caverns of reverb, church organs and synthetic arpeggios. The occasional samples of birds, insects, and thunder mix with the blend of electronic and acoustic instruments, a subtle reminder of the necessary link between the fate of our ecology and the moral use of technology. White's new album juxtaposes a heavy melancholy with an intimate touching lightness through her singular alto voice backed by orchestral percussion, soaring strings, heavy guitars, a choir of voices, and an overall cinematic presentation of dynamic songwriting.

The album is co-produced by Anton Patzner and Emily Jane White. Anton Patzner also engineered and arranged the songs. All of the songs were written by Emily Jane White, and recorded in Emeryville, California. You can pre-order a copy of Immanent Fire right here.