Rough Trade Records’ newest signing, London-based band caroline are sharing a new track and self-directed video today, called ‘Skydiving onto the library roof’. The track will be released as a 12” single, their second for Rough Trade Records / Remote Control Records, on June 25th.
caroline began in early 2017, evolving out of weekly improvisation sessions. Band members brought together their shared influences, including Midwestern emo, Appalachian folk, minimalist classical and various forms of electronic music, slowly expanding their on-stage membership as the songs developed. Rough Trade released their debut single ‘Dark blue’ in March 2020, and the eight-piece were nominated as Ones To Watch at the 2020 AIM Awards, and narrowly beaten by Arlo Parks.
‘Skydiving onto the library roof’ represents a new development in caroline’s songwriting process. Built on what the band refer to as a “broken loop” with no fixed pulse or rhythm, the song represents the start of their ongoing explorations into non-gridded time signatures and improvisation. “We’ve always been interested in patterns and repetition and that definitely features in a big way, although rather than there being a minimalistic, mechanical precision to the repetition, each one is unique,” they explain of the track. “The essence of the song – the broken loop – came early in the process and everything else seemed to naturally evolve out of it, as if the other parts were already contained within the broken loop and just needed to be unpacked.”
