Enigmatic UK band Valley of The Moon return with their new single ‘Lead Me Up The Mountain‘, via independent label Resplendent Records.
‘Lead Me Up The Mountain‘ is the second single from Valley of the moon’s debut album ‘hinterlands‘. The track is warm, uplifting and joyful, yet tinged with longing. It features guest vocals from Leeds-based singer Annie Wright (Imprints, Sonder Choir), and comes with an animated lyric video made by Gabriela Bran.
“Bells occur frequently in Valley of the moon songs”, explains the group. “To me, they signify something timeless and pastoral. I imagine Transhumance shepherds and flocks of goats striding past with purpose. The banjo and bells at the start of this song are meant to evoke the wild beauty of a mountainside, while the echoey synths that follow signify nightfall.
‘Lead me up the mountain’ is supposed to be a happy song, but it contains as much longing as it does joy. I suppose the two aren’t mutually exclusive, though. There is a joy within the longing (and a longing within the joy…)
The coda, which sounds ecstatic thanks to Annie Wright’s beautiful harmonies, was written a long time before the rest of the song. It speaks of salvation, but also finality. The clamour and chaos of the crescendo is like the storm before the calm. What follows is a kind of cessation: perfect peace, and the end of the journey.
I had the different sections of the song scribbled out in various pages of my notebook, and one day I decided to weave them all together. I was staying up in the Brecon Beacons, and the brooding majesty of those ancient peaks reminded me that mountaintops have always been thought of as the dwelling place of god(s).”
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