Exclusive /// Timber Premieres Debut EP

Timber, a duo pieced together by Janet Simpson and Will Stewart, have managed to create a sweet pause in a bitter world by means of their debut EP. It’s an ambient mosaic, a collection of repetitions and simple strums and voices like cold air, pure and noticeable. Separated by many miles, with Janet in Birmingham and Will in Nashville, the two crossed paths only in wind streams and thoughts, swapping songs and weaving them into a five-track EP. Their lyrics are introspective and suit the season, and they pair beautifully with the music to create songs that are soft but still captivating. The listening experience is like the moment when you finally stop to breathe, to appreciate the chill and calm of an inhale, and for a few seconds, all that is an uproar and all that is in motion is at rest. Opening up with “Home at Last,” the two singers match each others tones and sit lightly on top of slide guitar before escalating to the dreamy pop tones of “Green Wire.” “L’ombre de L’amour” emerges like the lovely sounds you notice when you allow your heartbeat to slow and your mind to wander. Disregarding the rigidness of a fixed tempo, Janet and Will duet to the pace of the lyrics, finding motion in the words and color in cadential creativity. “Blame,” the penultimate track from Timber’s EP, envelops you and sweeps you out of chaos and lets you float down easy. “I was able to write “Blame” because it was inspired by pure fiction. Real love is hard to write about,” says Janet. Reality can be that way- difficult to experience and even more challenging to describe. Closing it out with “Ghost,” the EP concludes the brief detour, reminding you that it’s nice to live in self-created, maybe even fictional simplicity, even if it’s just for a few songs. And these still ring true.