Danish lo-fi project Arbirk are another band who’ve slipped through the NMR net over the last few years. They arrived on the music scene with a flourish in 2017 with the release of ‘Disguises’, an album which made a pretty good impression, especially back in Denmark.
Now they’ve returned with a new single entitled ‘Hold My Hand’, and on this single they’ve had support from fellow Danish band Katinka (not to be confused with Kathinka from Norway), courtesy of Simon Ask and Marie Christiansen, who’ve produced and offered guest vocals respectively.
The subject matter here is heart wrenching, but thoughtful and as a song topic, pretty original too. The band explain more: ’'Hold My Hand is about losing someone you love, sitting next to them on the hospital bed and not being able to offer other ways of comfort and support support than holding their hand when it really hurts.’’
It’s a well written song which opens with the chorus, and it’s easy on the ear and gently arranged. The slow pace adds to the poignancy, allowing more time to reflect on the lyrics, and it ends with a lovely instrumental chord. By that stage the chorus definitely seems to have been repeated enough times, but that’s deliberate by the band who say ‘’the more times it is sung it becomes clearer that only as comfort to the one who is dying, but also to the one who has to live on.’’
Take a listen here.
It’s been a tough week, as explained in my Gösta Berlings Saga review, and 'Hold my Hand' is another release which really makes me reflect on the things that are important around us. It's released through Celebration Records.