If you live long enough on this earth you will love, and you will lose. For Ashley & Eric L'Esperance, the folk duo The Promise is Hope, the past four years have been abundant with both love and loss - joy and sorrow - high peaks and low valleys.

In a short time, the two had the joy of bringing their lives together, releasing their debut album "Where We've Been & Where We're Going," and heavily touring the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. Touring had given them the opportunity to meet and share their hearts with countless beautiful people, many who’d become great & friends and close supporters of their journey. In the same season, the two lost four family members; and went through a painful disintegration of their local faith community. Cancer, suicide, mental illness, and disillusionment had taken their toll and left the them full of questions.

After everything they had experienced, the L'Esperances slowly started writing songs that would become their sophomore album, "Every Seed Must Die." The process of writing and composing was a cathartic examination of death and life, grief and joy, loss and love. The songs are a result of the two digging into their hearts to explore the darkness they had experienced. Writing helped them process some of life’s toughest moments, and their hope is that the songs can do the same for other people - that they will meet you, the listener, wherever you are, walk with you through whatever you are going through & offer you a way forward.

Lyrically and musically, “Every Seed Must Die” marks a step forward for The Promise is Hope. The thematic content shows a growth in depth and maturity for both songwriters, who have always strived to bring raw, honest emotion to well-crafted lyrics. The duo seeks to build onto the great tradition of songwriters that have gone before them, and desires to contribute their unique perspective to the vast American folk landscape. The L’Esperances have shown great restraint in their approach to production. The two went into the studio seeking to create a sound that matched the vulnerability and intimacy of their lyrical content and alluded to the intimacy of their live performance. Old Bear Studio (Batavia, NY) Producer Chris Hoisington caught their vision. With his decisive ear for nuance, and an attitude of “less is more,” Chris helped craft an acoustic sound that features their two voices set over finger picked guitars, light piano, and cello. Inspired by production on records from decades past, Chris saw a place in the sound for the Mellotron, which often adds a soft foundation to the songs.

All together, “Every Seed Must Die” is a collection of sincere songs that encapsulates the feeling of being curled up in your favorite chair with a mug of tea (or whiskey) by the warm glow of an old space heater on a cold winter’s night. Though the world outside is bitter and cold, the warmth of this record feeds the soul and soothes the spirit.

Every Seed Must Die

Je Vous Salue, Marie

Mary-Ann

Always I

Lost and Found

Home

Brother

River

An “Autumn Hymn” for the disillusioned. When the institutions and systems which once claimed to save us failed us, we walked away from the dogmatic structure we were raised in. We turned to the natural world for a renewed sense of since-lost hope. We lay under the trees and remembered everything we lost. We listened to the cries of the forest, let our feet become rooted in the earth as the birds sang us back into peace. We learned to listen and even sing again in the midst of the silence. “A Song for Every Sadness” (Ash & Eric’s upcoming visual album) gains its title from these lyrics. These songs are truly our shelter from the storm.

Music & lyrics by Ashley P. H. L’Esperance & Eric P. L’Esperance
© 2021, TPIH Music/ASCAP
Mixed, arranged & produced by Eric L’Esperance
Mastered by Jason Deift
Eric L’Esperance - vocals, acoustic guitar, bass, percussion, high string guitar
Ash L’Esperance - vocals, acoustic guitar, piano
Marie Brouillette - flute
Peter L’Esperance - trumpet

LYRICS: 


In the cool of the Autumn sun
I turn to the howling wind
And ask her of her mournful song
Where does her pain begin?
She does not pause to answer me
With words I can record
But with a melancholy movement
She cuts me to my core

As her lonesome lilting lifts
Her voice grows clear and crisp
Rousing the tops of the towering pines
Entranced by her influence
They sway in perfect unison
In empathetic time
I lay amongst their sturdy legs
As tears fill up my eyes

I remember a simpler time
Though distant in my mind
A world laid out in black and white
With neatly painted lines
Where stories tell how the good ones win
A just and righteous war
But like a soldier sobered by the fight
I can’t believe them anymore

I’ve felt a darkness so complete
Shake the ground beneath my feet
And tear into the things I love 
Like a wolf with gnashing teeth
The sorrow burns within in my soul
Like a bush set all ablaze
Is there nothing I can stand upon
That will not fall away?

Then a voice from above
The haunting hymn of a dove
Calling out o’er the whipping wind
“Breathe in deep, and listen in.”

She sings a song for every sadness
A song for every pain
A song for every brokenness
That cannot be explained
I’ll gather them inside my heart
Like seeds carefully sown
They will grow into a tower of light
A shelter from the storm

They will grow into a tower of light
A shelter from the storm

Autumn Hymn

Ash & Eric (formerly ‘The Promise is Hope’) have never shied away from life’s hard edges. Hailing from the gritty heart of the Industrial Revolution -- Worcester, Massachusetts -- the two find consolation in discovering beauty from the challenges of being artists in the most stubbornly independent cities in the north east. Their musings reflect the hope and pain we all experience sung in voices as vulnerable and honest as their lyrics. Their songs feel like a warm welcome, a shoulder to lean on and a hand to hold at the end of a long day. In addition to top tier writing that No Depression says will have you “...coming away from many of these [songs] cleansed,” their warm harmonies, swirling acoustic guitars, and easy stage presence have earned them a dedicated following in the North East folk scene. Their highly-anticipated debut LP (their third as a duo, but first under “Ash & Eric”) was recorded, mixed and produced by Eric at a boarding school in Western Massachusetts; and will be released in early 2022 alongside an accompanying 25-minute visual EP.

Ash & Eric

Popular tracks