Dream-pop/folk artist Rosemary & Garlic shares new single “Television” via Nettwerk
September 30, 2022 BY Jason Currell
Dream-pop/folk act Rosemary & Garlic (aka Anne van den Hoogen) has returned with her new single “Television,” an intimate, playful, and delicate piece of dreamy indie folk, via Nettwerk. Inspired by such contemporary folk artists as Patrick Watson, Bon Iver, and Sufjan Stevens, Rosemary & Garlic’s music is a balance of light and dark, organic, and electronic, reality and dreams. “I try to find the boundaries of Rosemary & Garlic’s folk music,” Van den Hoogen says.
“Television” is a rose-tinted piano-driven effort that shines bright from start to finish. Finding a sonic balance between melancholic tones and gleaming textures, “Television” is a song about older people being treated like children. “‘I don’t need a television, give me a window for I have a whole life to mesmerize.’ That’s what my grandmother said when she spent her last days in daycare,” says Anne of Rosemary & Garlic. “All she wanted to do was read poetry or to just look out of the window while the others played Bingo and screamed through the sound of the TV. She hated the common room and she just wanted to drift away in her reverie, longing every day more for her escape from the world.”
Van den Hoogen goes on to describe “Television” as a folky, happy/sad goodbye song that she co-wrote and produced with Dolf Smolenaers. It’s also evidence of their creative vision as producers. “Throughout the whole song you’ll hear, or feel, a heartbeat punch. At the end there’s two lines of the Sylvia Plath poem Death & Co., ‘The frost makes a flower, the dew makes a star, the dead bell, the dead bell.’ And the heartbeat – the punch of the drum – stops. Those are the small musical things that are hidden inside of these songs that you don’t have to notice, but I think it’s what gives them some more meaning. It’s not really a fairytale, but it has some mystery.”
“Television” is available at all digital retailers here: https://rosemaryandgarlic.ffm.
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Rosemary & Garlic started as a duo consisting of singer/guitarist Anne van den Hoogen and keyboardist/guitarist Dolf Smolenaers. Together, they made tranquil, lilting indie folk with a melancholic atmosphere. They self-released their first EP, The Kingfisher in 2015. Over the months that followed, their song “Old Now” accumulated millions of plays on streaming sites, and the EP became a folk best-seller on Bandcamp. Their full-length debut, simply titled Rosemary & Garlic, followed in early 2018 via Nettwerk. The arrival of “Television” marks a promising return for Rosemary & Garlic yet sparks a new, fresh resonance for the project. The track sees Anne van den Hoogen coming into her own as a purveyor of lush and lilting indie folk music. “Television” was mixed by Ian Grimble (Daughter, Axel Flovent, Bears Den), who also mixed Rosemary & Garlic’s upcoming sophomore album out next spring.