HØLY WATERS is a new partnership from singer/songwriter Roxanne Emery & producer Ciaran McAuley. Having talked about working together for a number of years, but never finding quite the right project, they took matters into their own hands through HØLY WATERS. In the longing, affecting form of ‘Amsterdam’, this August sees their first material arrive.

As a city muse, Amsterdam’s broken - both musically and otherwise - its fair share of hearts. This month, we wager, it’s going to be responsible for a good few more. Together, Roxanne and Ciaran have created a track that - in beautifully bittersweet fashion - captures the city’s essence and at least one person’s experience in it.

Ciaran sets that scene musically, playing a coolly laidback tempo off against warm bass and long, drawn, decidedly cinematic strings. Delayed piano notes and skilfully timed and effected key changes increase its texture and atmosphere.

Roxanne is “still in Amsterdam” and her song is an open letter to both city and person. In it, no emotional punch in pulled with the implications of her words as heartfelt as it they are heartrending. When love comes to visit, but not stay, the elegiac truths of sentiments unreciprocated are played out in ‘Amsterdam’.