Photos by Kevin Russell Poole, Watercolor by Lydia Campbell, Design by Eliana Mullins
“Come walk with me,” beckons E.B. Hinnant in the opening line of “Orion,” the first song on his debut EP, Body Work. Its warbling synth feels as if the constellation’s stars have come down to swirl around you as they guide.
Appropriately, Hinnant’s moniker Fripp is shared with the surname of a girl said to haunt another navigational aid, a lighthouse in his native South Carolina. (And Orion isn’t the only Greek influence at work, with more than one nod to Mike Hadreas.)
Body Work was written over several years between there and his current home of Brooklyn, where he recorded the tracks alongside Ron Shalom who handled engineering, mixing, and mastering.
Hinnant tells Transverso,
“This record is about queer love, romantic and platonic bonds, body dysmorphia, and my relationship with myself. These are diary entries from the past few years, initially written just for myself to process the joys and turmoils in my mind. They’re all yours, now. I hope you enjoy them.”
Wandering again, we’re brought to the tranquil breath of the sea and the woodwind flurry of the title track before highlight “Cypress” closes. If its hopeful nature calls are any indication, the journey was never about finding your way out of the forest, but rather making peace with the vessel you’ve been given, even if it takes a “fresh coat of paint.”
Then, as fleeting as the love it pines after, Body Work fades gently back into the starlit night.
Body Work is out today (a Bandcamp Friday!), with a cassette release featuring an additional single and two stripped versions coming soon via Garden Kiln. Listen and browse through additional photos below.
