Fathom is a solo project of Nancy Howie. Her music is recorded using instruments she built herself in her workshop in lockdown.

Music and lyrics written by Fathom
Recording by Fathom
All instruments and vocals performed by Fathom
Mixing by Morgan Allen, mastering by Dave Chechelashvili 

DIY instruments: ululuophones (membranophones), lyretars (bowed stringed instrument), hurdy gurdy, drum kit

Found/upcycled instruments: notebook, cookie tin, galvanised pipe, glass bottles (as percussion), glass bottles (as flute), egg cup

Conventional instruments: acoustic, electric and slide guitars, fretless bass, keyboards, mandolin


Lyrics: 

Breathe, will a world to breathe
Breathe the streets
Breathe the stores, swarming
Breathe the hordes out the way
Breathe low
Blow no answers to the hows and nows and whys
Breathe the words
Breathe the bald conjecture
Breathe the feverish breeze

Breathe, give her room to breathe
Breathe the breach
Breathe, the dams are bursting
Breathe the pilgrimage home
Breathe high
Blow the birdies into empty skies
Watch as we go...

Float so easy back to ground
Sigh, and hear this orb spin
Twirling us sweetly
Astounded stupor
Waltz me true
Fact, step forward, fuss behind
Post the untold through the wind

Body breathe
Family breathe
Breathe vicinity
Breathe out
Tasting caution with our
Strangely dangerous mouths

Flow so easy from our lungs
Revved-up fingers, marble tongues
Dressed up for nowhere,
We hum along to silent songs
Pulsing lightly out of range

Future selves, see today scoop and hurl us around
Flung to terra nova and homeland bound
Shackled to the ground
We're fearing infinity
Loop the narrative howl
Twisting and distorted,
We fill the void with dust and question marks

Breathe the fall
Breathe the dark
Dreadful mystery
Breathe is all I can do,
Drowning in the shower or lying face down
Gazing through the ground
To someone who's loved
And much too far from me now
Telecalls and postcards knit space and time
As if it were mine

Itch unreach
Baby, name my absent feeling
(Note collective pain untamed)
Tetchy beastie
It's OK to not be OK
(Sure, whatever, but what then?)
Scratching, reaching
Tearing open
(Hollowed vessel look out)
Over covid, over covert
Over coping underwater

Break through

The World To Breathe

A piano tuner by trade, Fathom embraced the abundance of time the 2020 lockdown offered by handcrafting bespoke instruments out of whatever materials she could find. Two hurdy gurdies, one lap steel, an abundance of horns / saxophones and a cello made from a fence post and tin can later, Fathom found herself with an entire album of songs defined by a unique soundscape.

"Mother Star" is a plea for answers and a reminder to be the best human you can be in the face of widespread confusion, frustration and anxiety.
 
The rhythm section of "Mother Star" is largely homemade. Drums were made using a paint tin and two stock pots fitted with inflatable-pool-toy skins and the kick approximated by pounding a fist onto the floor. The track also features three of Fathom's "ululophones", which resemble saxophones.

Tell Too Fast

Wink Of The Lighthouse

Fathom is a singer-songwriter, musician and maker with a passion for inventing and building experimental instruments. Her music incorporates influences of ‘70s folk-rock, jazz, and indie, but the sound of homemade instrumentation is uniquely her own.

Fathom (NZ)