2018 was a great year for Esprit D’Air with the release of their award-winning album Constellations and a successful UK headliner tour back in February. The tour even got an extension in September, with 4 extra shows in Barcelona, London, Paris, and our own AVO J-Music Festival in The Hague on 15 September. Yet success doesn’t come cheap and for the band to be able to continue delivering the quality the fans longed for, they raised a crowdfunding for their upcoming single Amethyst.
The crowdfunding was a great success and not even a few days later the band could proudly announce they had the funds necessary to release their new single within the coming month. And even with the sad news, the physical copies of the single itself have been delayed a few days until 26 February, we already can enjoy the much-awaited music video they produced with our help.
Amethyst is a tender song with a bitterness sounding both through the melancholic piano tones, as well as through the sorrowful vocals of Kai. The video only strengthens the feeling of wistfulness by showing the cool sceneries of rivers that flow away from the viewer, a landscape fitting a sense of loss and longing. Throughout the song, the instrumentals seem to be in a mental battle with one another. The background wants to be slow and fading, while the main instruments come off stronger and faster, almost as if chasing something. It’s a totally captivating whole in which each element draws you into the story Kai is trying to tell us with his delicate and nearly tragic vocals, and as the end draws in, you’ll find yourself lost in it.
According to Kai, the name of the song origins from an Amethyst being his birthstone. He explained the stone with its beautiful purple hue is a crystal that can help people find their true self and help them get rid of their longing to meet the expectations of the masses. Furthermore, he explained he got the inspiration for the artwork of the single and the music video from his time in Iceland, with its “ethereal landscapes and scenery”.
“The song,” as Kai told us “is about being honest with yourself, whether that is with love, friendship, or life in general, and by doing so, will help you experience pure happiness.”
As beautiful as Amethyst turned out, one can only imagine what the rest of the single will bring. The digital release of the song is available already on both Spotify and iTunes, and the entire single is now downloadable for those who pledged during the crowdfunding.
Rating: 93/100
