Premiere: Bess Atwell Shares Acoustic Live Video For New Track 'The Weeping'

Premiere: Bess Atwell Shares Acoustic Live Video For New Track 'The Weeping'

Watch the video below

08 January 2024

By Caleb Campbell

Photo: Davey Pentecost

Fans last heard Brighton-based singer/songwriter Bess Atwell with her 2021 sophomore album, Already, Always, which introduced Atwell's sparse, lyrical and soulful style of indie folk to a host of new listeners. Since then, Atwell has been relatively quiet. 2022 shared Already, Rearrangementa collection of remixes from her sophomore record, followed by a pair of singles last year, “Sylvester” and “The Weeping,” the latter of which was produced by The National's Aaron Dessner.

These tracks are the first taste of more new music from Atwell this year, but today she opens the new year with an acoustic live video for “The Weeping,” premiering on Under the Radar.

“The Weeping” hits particularly hard on Atwell's live composition, with Dessner's production and rich studio instrumentation for a different kind of intimacy. Accompanied only by striking acoustic strums and the spectral touches of David Pentecost's electric guitar, Atwell nostalgically locates childhood vignettes in a flurry of delightful melodies. Her vocals stretch and ache, giving her lyrics a special resonance as she explores memories of her childhood bond with her sister. not at all/I'm a walking open wound/And I can't stop crying'.

Atwell explains of the track, “I knew 'The Weeping' was in me, I just wasn't sure when it would decide to come out. I only knew I was writing it when I got to the second verse and realized I finally had a vantage point. My younger sister is autistic, the kind of non-verbal autism that requires 24/7 care, and this piece is mostly about what it was like growing up with her. 'The Weeping' explores the parallels between me and my sister, which is all the more interesting when you consider that I wrote it before I found out I'm also autistic, this year – albeit in a much less debilitating, disabling way.”

He says of the accompanying video “We filmed this live version of 'The Weeping' in Tuscany, where I'd shot a lot of music videos. We were staying in a beautiful villa that was surrounded by fields, so we decided to take the opportunity to do a separate, stripped-down show – just me on classical guitar and David Pentecost on electric guitar and backing vocals. I wrote 'The Weeping' at sunset and the song is about that, so I thought it would be a nice touch to shoot the session as the sun was setting over the Tuscan landscape. Shooting at sunset doesn't give you much time or room for error, but since it's such a personal song, I wanted the performance to be raw, so I was fine with that.”

Check out the song and video below, everywhere now.