Fresh from Hastings, talented trio 23 Fields, including Step Adams, Louise Driver and Jason M. Smith, are back with their latest song, “I’ll See You Soon.” Years of honing their craft on the streets and on countless projects have culminated in this new work, and it’s evident in the honesty of it all. Their folk roots indie-rock distinctive sound has a purpose here. In a world of modern stress and continual noise, their music is a peaceful, anchoring anchor, pulling us back to what is real and true.
The song fits well within the indie-folk style, yet it doesn’t need amplification to make its point. Instead, it thrives on a wonderful sense of restraint. The musicians know that the space between the sounds may be just as potent as the notes themselves. The song establishes a very familiar and organic-feeling setting through a choice of simplicity. It’s a piece distinguished not by technical pyrotechnics, but by sincere, tactile warmth that feels like a gentle mirror of our own lives.
This layout generates a very intimate feel. It is like being in a little, quiet room where all there are, are your own private thoughts and echoes that refuse to die. The instruments are stacked to evoke the gentle gold of the late afternoon sun streaming through a dusty window. The sound is palpable, even real, you can almost feel the actual contact of the strings and the soft pressure of the wooden bodies of the instruments. All things flow in a natural rhythm, rising and falling gracefully, without any sensation of force. The production is so warm that the separation between the music and the space around us seems to completely disappear.
The singing is the most fragile element in this tapestry. The lead voice is delicate and precise, taking each syllable with a care that suggests these sentences have been held in the mind for a long time. It catches the exact, momentary instant a passing notion becomes a profound, personal feeling. Equally important are the harmonies, which give a supportive subtext to the main narrative and add weight to it. These supporting voices diffuse the sound, expanding a single perspective into the wide and infinite. The interplay of the main melody and vocal layers mimics the internal arguments we all have with ourselves when facing the bittersweet truth of what isn’t said.
At its heart it’s a meditation on the duality of what we mean and what is real. It’s a struggle between that urge to be there for people and the reality of what our lives are like. Often we find ourselves torn between our survival and our innermost duties to family. The song is a painful confession, a means of acknowledging the commitments we made to those who gave us life but cannot wait forever for us to return. It speaks to the ubiquitous burden of assuming we have an unlimited horizon, an idea that often blinds us to the preciousness of time.
This song is about the quiet and difficult patience that comes when we realize we have let time slip from us. That which is left is heavy with regret, yet the song argues that our vows to re-establish contact are a protection against the hard truth of how time passes. We convince ourselves we’ll do it tomorrow to avoid the truth that tomorrow is not promised. But the real story here is one of resilience. It’s a reminder to do something now, to touch across the distance, to fix broken links before we can. Life is not about the destination, it is about the journey.The best moments are those we live today, not those we keep postponing for a future that may never come.
For more, follow 23 Fields on Spotify, 23 Fields on Soundcloud, 23 Fields on Facebook, 23 Fields on Instagram, 23fields.co.uk