With Still Beauty, PITP label head zakè (Zach Frizzell) and California-based marine eyes (Cynthia Bernard) present a suite of lovingly constructed pieces that combine organic, tape-saturated drones with angelic, spacious vocals and a host of other texturally nuanced instrumentation. Building on the hushed promises of their collaborative debut, Unfailing Love (2021), the two artists immerse us in the processes of loss, grief, and renewal, spiriting us through overlapping shadows into newfound light.

“Unfailing Love explored sadness, resilience, and a path toward deeper compassion and empathy,” Frizzell explains, “and while those themes continue here with greater clarity, we also wanted to show that even after hardship, there is a precious, persistent beauty worth holding onto.” Fittingly, the album’s eight movements sit on the precipice of some darkened abyss from which a mysterious, sweetened air arises, balanced between hope and melancholy, at peace with the whims of nature’s immensity.

Throughout the album, Frizzell wraps blankets of etherized drone around Bernard’s heavenly incantations for an overall feeling that is infinite and rapturous — a perfect synthesis of Midwestern, existentialist gravity and daydreaming, coastal drift. On pieces like “Map of Edges” and “What Was Home”, the earth moves in humming tremors as the seismograph flits at the corners and a comforting, crystalline mist of upper-register harmony wafts across the landscape. In many places, a focus on orchestral elements provides an understated sense of evolution for the duo, taking us through meditative landscapes, always with a current of protective strength and a vast range of emotional contours.

Above all, Still Beauty casts a spell of kindness and care. Each artist has experienced significant trials and traumas in the half-decade since Unfailing Love, but as two individuals who profoundly revere the natural world, they choose to nurture their strength of spirit through the creation of beautiful things. “Zach and I share a wonderful friendship, and when we collaborate, our synergy just naturally locks in,” notes Bernard, “These songs contain a lot of secretly encoded messages to our loved ones, honoring the importance of each day we get to share… We have such an unbreakable bond based on our awareness of that fragility, and this collaboration has been a gift to us both.”