by Shea Roney (@uglyhug_records)
The Hudson Valley-based folk duo, Babehoven, have continously made transcending music with a pure and gentle touch. Embodying spiritual freedom and love for the natural world, collaborators Maya Bon and Ryan Albert approach music as if to have come right out of the soil. Already having six EPs in their catalog, Babehoven condensed their multitudes of textures into one cohesive and expansive debut full length album. With this homemade and patient approach to affirmation, Light Moving Time found Bon and Albert on a fractured timeline of perseverance and development.
Like their previous releases, the duo’s core approach is still through the vocal heights and soft meanders that lean every which way. One of the pinnacle moments on the album comes from the closing track, “Often.” a sparse song of familial trauma that Bon reluctantly carries with her. Returning to the singular word “often.” Bon masters storytelling with the minimalist of effects. “Circles,” one of the more condensed and simple tracks on the album, still fills the listener with hints of both unease and comfort (a combination that is pretty hard to do). As the guitar runs with Bon’s vocal jumps, the track empties out, but in no way does the emotional weight leave with it.
The more sonically rich tracks, like the opener “Break The Ice” or “Pockets,” are all layered in subdued shoegaze and folk stylings, allowing Bon’s ethereal voice to float above in a hierarchy of sound. Albert’s guitar work and ability to manipulate atmospheres gives Light Moving Time more depth then their previous EP, Sunk; a sparse landscape of contemplative and delicate folk songs. With that being said, Light Moving Time builds upon the empty spaces, filling corners with new sounds that all have a purpose. “Breaking the Ice,” the vibrant album opener, is a marching tune of regret. “I loved you like a house minder, a house fire / I wanted nothing but to break the ice” Bon sings over steady guitars and a running snare when reflecting on the beginning of a harmful relationship that lost control.
For how warm Light Moving Time feels, Bon’s narration grapples between stability and miscommunication within her most personal relationships. On “Do It Fast,” a song referring to utter hopelessness, Bon sings, “if it’s going to kill me then let it burn / Just do it fucking fast because it’s starting to hurt,” a low point where self-regard becomes fleeting. On the contrary, the leading single “I’m On Your Team,” finds the band reaching out with a warm embrace as they themselves show support for someone at their lowest. With Albert's dry guitar tone in the foreground and Bon’s skillfully flowing vibrato, “I’m On Your Team” stands in for when we need it most.
Babehoven, never a band to be cautious in sound, approach the recovery process one step at a time. Almost a year since its release, Light Moving Time has only aged with grace and wisdom. On the track “June Phoenix,” Bon sings, “When the years could mean everything / light moving time”; feeling all the more true now. At times defeating, the band ebbs and flows between stylistic choices of warmhearted rejoice and folky lament, but in the end, that’s how it goes. Light Moving Time is Bon’s way of saying that any sort of progress, no matter the distance, is beautiful.