Various Artists – ‘SPRING’ [Album Review]

Folk-soul singer, producer, and DJ Heather Christie launches her new record label, Möonbabe Records, with the release of the label’s first quarterly compilation, entitled SPRING.  Möonbabe Records supports and celebrates female music artists and mothers.

Heather Christie explains, “SPRING is the first of four compilation albums Möonbabe plans to release in 2024. Moms who make music are nothing short of revolutionary. It is the creative works of the bearers of our next generations that industries should highlight because it is the wisdom of birth and motherhood that can lead our planet to peace.”

Raised amidst the vibrant music culture of Santa Cruz by a family of Grateful Dead enthusiasts, Christie’s passion for performance began when she was five years old, ranging from classical choir to Broadway musicals to modern dance and electronic music.

Christie went on to co-found multiple music projects, including Feral Fauna and Silk Drop, where her innovative soundscapes collected viral recognition, amassing millions of streams. She performed on American Idol’s “Hollywood Week” in 2016. A photo of her breastfeeding her daughter while DJing during 2023’s Spirit Weavers Gather in Oregon appeared in the New York Post, Popculture, and on ABC News.

Encompassing 15 tracks, highlights on SPRING include “Into This Body,” a smoldering electro-R&B song featuring oozing washes of silky harmonics topped by Christie’s evocative, beguiling vocals.

SIIKA’s “Send Us To The Mountain” rides a tribal-like rhythm as gorgeously visceral harmonies imbue the lyrics with summoning textures. A personal favorite because of its low-slung, dreamy sensation, Spacetime’s “Created To Love” offers a creamy, lightly throbbing rhythm and velvety, breathy vocals.

With its plucking, bewitching flow, Emma Lucia’s “Luften Den Lyser” delivers layers of soft, gliding surfaces as Lucia’s exquisite voice flavors the lyrics with translucent hues. Upon reflection, this may be the best track on the album.

‘SPRING’ Contributors, photo by Marisa Pfening

The Celtic folk savors of Melita’s “Lantern” provide a lilting, enchanting matrix that supports Melita’s beautiful incantatory vocals.

Chloe Smith’s “Fertile Ground,” a collaboration with Evan Fraser, Vir McCoy, and Rising Appalachia, rolls out on light, twangy guitars atop an unassuming beat. Smith’s mellow, redolent voice dresses the lyrics in wistful tones.

Elisa Rose’s “Ocean’s Floor” ties the album off with a slow, drifting melody, sparkling with gentle hues and Rose’s dreamy, sighing vocals aching with yearning passion.

Complicated and warmly substantial, while simultaneously captivating and affectionate, SPRING is a marvelous work of art.

Heather Christie, photo by Amandala Photography

SPRING Track Listing:

1. Into This Body
2. Send Us To The Mountain
3. Created To Love
4. Luften Den Leyser
5. Lantern
6. Sahrô
7. Fertile Ground
8. Nectar
9. Alchemista
10. Tune Into Truth
11. I Am the Earth
12: Liquid Gold
13. Make A Difference
14. Children of the Earth
15. Ocean’s Floor

Run Time: 62:00
Release Date: March 21, 2024
Record Label: Möonbabe Records