Album review: AVAWAVES – Heartbeat

One Little Independent Records [Release date 09.05.25]

This is the third album from chill-out duo Aisling Brouwer and Anna Phoebe and should be essential listening; just great for those long evenings when you can actually sit out and enjoy the setting sun.

The modus operandi is the mournful violin of Phoebe matched to Brouwer’s beats (and keyboards). It’s simply stunning.

For ‘Heartbeat’ the songs are occasionally augmented by atmospheric background vocals (Imogen Williams who also sings lead on ‘Sleep Tight’). It’s all highly immersive from the opening title track.

I’ve always been a sucker for minor keys, a mournful and evocative violin and reflective keyboards but sometimes violin-led albums can get a bit tiresome and repetitive. I was always impressed with Ed Alleyne-Johnson’s ‘Purple Electric Violin Concerto’ but now seldom play it. Avawaves music certainly has future replay potential and the formula is contagious.

Throughout, the album evokes a widescreen soundtrack which is hardly surprising because Brouwer is a film composer. Together with Phoebe she has scored ‘The Buccaneers’ (Apple TV+). But this isn’t library music, another genre that feeds TV and film and can sometimes sound too samey and disorientating when out of context.

In the midst of Covid-19, I wrote in 2021 about their previous album ‘Chrysalis’: “…the album succeeds by offering an immersive melancholic soundtrack to our current malaise and uncertainty.”

This description is still relevant and ‘Heartbeat’ is more soothing balm for our times. ****1/2

Review by David Randall

Album review (Chrysalis, 2021)

UK dates 2025
06.06 – London, Lexington
11.06 – Brighton, Komedia Studio
19.06 – Manchester, Gullivers
20.06 – Bristol, Rough Trade

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Power Plays w/c 16 June 2025

LOVE NOR MONEY Blood Will Tell (Golden Robot Records)
DISCIPLES OF VERITY Break The Cycle (TLG/Zoid)
BLACKLIST UNION Up In Smoke (BLU Records)
ANDY AND THE ROCKETS Cyanide (Valley Music Delapop)
ARCHERS Crooked Smile (SBG Records)
ZETRA So (Nuclear Blast)
HOLLOW SOULS Shotgun (indie)

Featured Albums w/c 16 June 2025

09:00-12:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Rock)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Melodic Hard Rock)
14:00-16:00 The Best of 2003 – 2024 (Singer Songwriter)

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