Still Corners

United by Tessa Murray’s delicate vocals and their love of otherworldly atmospheres, Still Corners’ music is otherwise in constant motion. On their 2011 debut album Creatures of an Hour, Murray and Greg Hughes evoked Ennio Morricone and the spacy experiments of ’60s psych legends the United States of America. From there, the British-American duo added glamorous ’80s synth pop to their repertoire on 2013’s Strange Pleasures. With the sultry twang of 2018′s Slow Air and 2021′s The Last Exit, Still Corners proved once again that they were stylish and musically restless in equal measures.
Still Corners formed shortly after Hughes, a native of Austin, Texas, met Murray by chance at a London train station. Taking their name from a phrase in Robert Frost’s poem “New Hampshire,” they soon began making music together. They debuted with 2008′s self-released Remember Pepper? EP, which took inspiration from nouvelle vague cinema as well as the sounds of Ennio Morricone. Two years later, their Great Pop Supplement single “Don’t Fall in Love” sold all 700 copies of its limited-edition release in one day, attracting the attention of Sub Pop. After signing a deal with the label in 2011, Still Corners’ full-length debut Creatures of an Hour appeared that October and drew comparisons to Broadcast, Stereolab, and the Paisley Underground scene.
For May 2013′s Strange Pleasures, Still Corners expressed the oddness of love and creativity by adding polished ’80s influences like Vangelis to their sound. To record their third album, Murray and Hughes moved from London to the English seaside. Inspired by the water’s intense color, they named the set of songs Dead Blue. The album, which featured the Brian Wilson-inspired single “Lost Boys,” was released on Still Corners’ own Wrecking Light Records in September 2016. The duo moved to Austin, Texas’ hill country to make August 2018′s Slow Air, channeling the region’s heat and evocative landscapes into a hazy set of songs that they recorded in three months. Hughes and Murray expanded on Slow Air’s dusty atmospheres with January 2021′s The Last Exit, a love letter to the enduring mystery of the open road. ~ Heather Phares