Devon-born, London-based artist and producer Austel (AKA Annie Rew Shaw) has released her latest album, Mirror to Mine.
Made up of ten tracks and mixed by Grace Banks (English Teacher, Squid, Haim), Mirror to Mine is Austel’s attempt to dig deep and seek answers to long-lost memories, all while entirely self-producing the album.
Mirror to Mine is all about Austel’s journey over the last ten years in the music industry, after leaving home and meeting her long-term partner. The lead (and closing) track, “Coast To Coast”, is a beautiful, acoustic guitar-led track about how priorities shift as time goes on and you grow older, and how some things that seem so important when you’re young fall away.
“I think I always know which songs will open and close an album,” says Austel, “and this song, with all its themes of homecoming and both departure and arrival, felt so right to end the record [and] wrap up this chapter.”
Over the course of the album’s ten tracks, Austel creates a salt-stained, coastal-themed atmosphere with largely just her vocals and acoustic guitar, in an altogether more folky manner than her previous album, Dead Sea. There’s a real sense of yearning before the tracks settle and become more sure of themselves, much like Austel herself over the years as an artist. Introspection can be a well-worn subject for alt-folk, but in the hands of Austel, it’s truly lovely.
