Heather Nova finds a stillness among the storm on Breath And Air, music for late nights, early mornings, and every moment in between when you're just trying to make sense of it all.
After three decades of baring her soul through song, Heather Nova returns with Breath And Air, one her most intimate albums to date. Recorded over four weeks in a secluded studio tucked away in the Devon countryside, the album captures the Bermuda-born singer-songwriter at her most reflective, summoning a delicate yet emotionally potent brew of songs about love, loss, and the lifelong pursuit of healing.
Produced alongside Chris Bond, Breath And Air leans into atmosphere and nuance. Nova’s vocals, overflowing with emotion and as ethereal as ever, float through songs filled with folk, alt-pop, and chamber elements. It all feels very much grounded and otherworldly, as if written in the wind and carved into stone at the same time. The songs were born over the past two years, shaped by solitude and soul-searching. “I keep coming back to the same themes - love, loss, longing,” Nova says. “It’s an ongoing journey that shows no sign of reaching a destination. My songs are documents of that journey.”
Lyrically, the album dives into recurring life patterns, emotional cycles, and the dualities of human existence. “We repeat the cycles until we truly learn what our core wounds are and how to heal them,” she reflects. “Songwriting is a search for meaning and clarity - about ourselves and the world we inhabit.” Nova, Bond, and Bond’s brother Bear handled most of the instrumentation, with cellist Midori Jaeger adding gentle yet stirring textures on a few tracks. “Out the window was a field,” Nova recalls of the studio. “I would watch the light change there throughout the day. There was a rare albino pheasant that would come and go. I took it as a good sign.”
Breath And Air doesn’t try to offer easy answers. Instead, it sits with life’s contradictions. “We can’t have light without dark, joy without pain,” Nova says. “It’s simple stuff, but I constantly need to remind myself.” The album invites listeners into that same space of remembrance and rediscovery. It doesn’t rush. It breathes. It waits for you to catch up. With Breath And Air, Heather Nova proves that quiet revelations can echo the loudest.