In her new single "Tabula Rasa," Oxford-based artist Bethany Weimers takes you to a place between heartbreak and healing, and the effect is breathtaking. The self-produced track, her third release from her upcoming EP, "The Story I Breathe," is a hypnotic, atmospheric homage to rebirth. "Tabula Rasa" draws you into its serene storm of insistent piano phrases and spectral vocal layers. The title, Latin for "blank slate," is the emotional core of the track. Penned after a significant personal upheaval, Weimers turns it into a ritual, a mantra whispered and sung repeatedly until the past releases its chokehold and the future starts to bloom.
Bethany Weimers' production is full of nuance. Reverb-slick piano motifs echo throughout the mix like footsteps in an empty cathedral, her layers of vocals swelling and collapsing like tides. There is quiet courage in how the track unfolds as patient, deliberate, and never rushed. There's an audible unfurling of pain, a determination not to hurry the healing, and a grudging accommodation of what's new.
"Tabula Rasa" is also oddly affirming. Hope humming beneath the heartache, a promise that letting go is not buckling at the knees but bending at the waist. Weimers' folk-tinged storytelling is front and center here, she's reliving the story, remaking it, and asking you to do the same with your own. She has a gentle, assured voice, vulnerable with a thread of resilience. This dual emotional quality keeps you coming back on track.
If "Tabula Rasa" indicates what the rest of "The Story I Breathe" will sound like, it will be incredibly personal and poignant. In a world where we're conditioned to expect instant results and polished perfection, Bethany Weimers recalls the natural beauty of learning to start over and the art that comes from it. This is a song for anyone who has ever stood on the edge of a new beginning with your heart in hand and an opportunity to start over.
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