South African Illustrator, painter and musician, Willem Samuel, is currently in the
country waiting to have is UK visa renewed. He stretches his stay to its
fullest potential by releasing his collection of exquisite love songs,
Langafstand (Long-Distance). Langafstand is accompanied by a beautiful booklet
of illustrations and lyrics which features art from Willem's graphic novel
Mengelmoes, which also launches this month, 25 February, at The Book Lounge in
Cape Town!
Meet Willem Samuel. He’s a comic book artist, painter and
songwriter currently based in London away from his native South Africa. After
being in various punk and indie bands since the 90s, he has now debuted his
first solo EP that is a reflection on being physically and/or emotionally away
from a loved one that’s appropriately titled Langafstand (Afrikaans for
Long-Distance). Langafstand is an EP with love songs written and sung in
Afrikaans, yet the core emotions can still be felt universally. These acoustic
tracks aren’t the typical ones sung at coffee shops, there are some
experimental elements with electric guitars, cajons, and melodicas thrown in
amongst other ambient instrumental voices. Willem’s musicianship can bring to
mind a mix of Denison Witmer, Iron and Wine, and Bill Callahan albeit with a
style on his own.
The EP starts out with the song “Mis Jou” (Miss You) which
is a somber number about longing for that special someone. “Tweedimensional”
(Two-Dimensional) is a slowly building song that uses a cajon as percussion
midway through and the melody is anchored by a subtle bass line that keeps it
going. “Die Voorstel” (The Proposal) is an urgent and upbeat track that details
a proposal, finding mutual instruments, and wanting to start a family in that
order with some synchronicity in those topics. The fast tempo has a bit of a
folk punk edge that is reminiscent of Chuck Ragan’s solo work. There’s the
slowcore ballad “Snare” (Strings) that is a gentle song that invokes imagery of
comparing and contrasting a lover’s embrace being better than holding a prized
well-strung guitar. “Waardevol” (Precious) has clean electric guitar lines
interweaving with the acoustic dreamy sound in this piece. The last song
“Sonskyn” (Sunshine) is a lo-fi downtempo song that evokes some of the
aesthetics of Sun Kil Moon with a bit of American Wolf’s earlier material
thrown in. It has an unpolished, yet truly honest aesthetic that is a fitting
closer to Langafstand.
This multitalented artist is able to make the yearnings of
being in that long-distance relationship seem a bit better after releasing his
debut solo EP. The strength of these songs was enough to make this a solid
entry in the folk genre for 2016.
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