Following the release of standout tracks “Turning Light”, “Right Now” and “Fading Lines”, Amber Arcades—the moniker of Dutch musician Annelotte de Graaf—is thrilled to share the breathtaking video for “Fading Lines” via NOWNESS. The track is from her upcoming debut album, Fading Lines (out June 3rd on Heavenly Recordings.The breezy cut proves a rousing mix of dreamy guitars and de Graaf’s feather-light vocals, propelling the listener through her addictive and delirious reverie. The video- directed by Gover Meit- takes this sentiment to literal form, following the gorgeous aerial ballet of a skydiver shot in reverse.

Annelotte reflects on the video: “The song is loosely inspired by my grandfather’s death a while ago and the way he was able to accept everything his life had and hadn’t been. It’s about the feeling of being in an overwhelmed state, like you’ve been propelled free-fall into something you don’t understand for the most part, lines between memories and moments fading until it all turns into a gloriously incandescent blur. When Gover told me about his idea of recording a person dancing mid air, slowly falling up into the sky, I felt like this was the best possible way to translate this overwhelmed feeling into moving images. I never could’ve imagined it would turn out this beautiful though.”

Recorded at Strange Weather Studio in New York with producer Ben Greenberg (The Men, Beach Fossils, Destruction Unit), Fading Lines was inspired by time, continuity, coincidence and magic. Other inspirations include early-morning jetlag (‘Turning Light’) and an artist’s plans for a utopian city (‘Constant’s Dream’). Although this sounds dreamy in nature (and these songs do posses a seamless, ethereal quality), De Graaf’s dreams are not necessarily rooted in whimsy. In fact they have led to her working as a legal aide on UN war crime tribunals (she currently works in human rights law people who had fled Syria), to inviting strangers to share her Utrecht squat (which led to a friendship and later to her signing to Heavenly), and to spending her life savings on a flight to New York because that’s where she wanted to record her first album.

After researching producers and deciding to work with Greenberg (“the odd one out as he’d produced all this hardcore punk shit”), Annelotte was joined by Shane Butler and Keven Lareau of Quilt on guitar and bass, Jackson Pollis of Real Estate on drums, plus Meg Duffy on slide guitar on the eerie, clip-clopping “Apophenia”. They listened to “a lot of Suicide, Broadcast, Stereolab, Yo La Tengo, The Gun Club…” and worked on the songs that Annelotte had written at home in Utrecht.

“In New York everything came together beautifully,” says De Graaf. “The whole team, the producer and the band. It was a magical time – writing an album had been an abstract thing in my mind and recording it in New York had been a wild, surreal plan. It never really occurred to me that it would happen until I sat on the plane. I had this money in my savings account and I thought, I’m going to make an album.”

Right from woozy, soaring opener “Come With Me”, the album invites endless interpretations – or simply emotional and physical reactions of joy, loss, acceptance and “the billions of different views there are to this life and whatever we’re doing here”. The result is a dazzling and immersive collection of songs, proving Amber Arcades as an assured and exceptional new talent.

Amber Arcades’ recording band is as follows: Shane Butler (Quilt) on guitar, Keven Lareau (Quilt) on bass, and Jackson Pollis (Real Estate) on drums.

Fading Lines Tracklisting:

1. Come With Me

2. Constant’s Dream

3. Fading Lines

4. I Will Follow

5. Perpetuum Mobile

6. Right Now

7. Apophenia

8. This Time

9. Turning Light

10. White Fuzz