Emily Sprague Returns With ‘Hill, Flower, Fog,’ An Expansive and Beautiful Ambient Album Recorded as We Entered COVID Lockdown

While Emily Sprague’s ambient, solo experimental work seemed at first to be a side project to her popular indie pop/folk band Florist, I think that distinction might be dissolving right before our eyes. Building off the praise that came from last year’s Water Memory/Mount Vision, an outstanding album that packaged two previous EPs into one of my favorite records of 2019, she is back with a new coronavirus-referencing, digital-only record titled Hill, Flower, Fog, for now only available on her bandcamp page. She notes that the five-song collection of blissful soundscapes was recorded the week of march 9th, at the start of our current lockdown. She says in the album notes ” i hope it helps calm find a way.” I know for me the peaceful, lucid songs have been a balm as I’ve wrestled with our new reality of isolation and not knowing what comes next.