Esben and the Witch

Like so many bands, Brighton’s Esben and the Witch came together via a series of chance encounters, coincidences and happy accidents. Daniel Copeman met Thomas Fisher and the two began to make music; that indefinable kind that’s only explainable through movement, expression and experience. Neither particularly relished the responsibility of vocals, but soon a solution presented herself. Rachel Davies already knew Thomas, and immediately clicked with Daniel; the trio was established. Recording with equipment old and new, the three-piece’s first recordings were collected as 33, a demo-cum-EP that immediately attracted its share of discerning ears. Shows with the likes of the xx, Fiery Furnaces, Sian Alice Group and Deerhunter and festival appearances including End of the Road, honed the band’s stagecraft and before long comparisons flowed, yet none quite sticks. PJ Harvey, Portishead, Kate Bush, Björk, Radiohead circa Kid A – all are flattering, but not one is a perfect parallel. The three band members cite literature, geography and history as influences alongside their musical preferences; they take their name from a Danish fairytale; they have a song, “Eumenides,” inspired by Aeschylus’ Oresteia. But if that suggests Esben and the Witch are pretentious sorts out to blind with oblique intellectualism, you’re missing the point. Their music is considerably more than the sum of its parts, a concoction simmering with dark desires, marked by glacial guitars and blessed with heavenly vocals atop electronic unrest. However deep you delve, an impression is left. Scratch the surface and it scratches back; become enveloped and suffocate, willingly and serenely.