Love and loss go hand in hand, two sides of the same coin, and there is no more final hurt than the death of a loved one; written as far back as 2006 for a dear friend who had lost his wife (and released for the first time now in response to the unprecedented losses of the Covid 19 pandemic), Alise Ashby’s ‘I Will Carry You’ is a stunning, delicate, piano-and-strings ballad of grief, healing, and the pain of heartbreak and passing.
Commissioned to write her first independent film score at the tender age of just 16 (and presented at the Cannes Film Festival), Alise Ashby is a stunningly gifted composer and musician, and ‘I Will Carry You’ is an exquisite piece of work, soaring and hopeful yet dazzlingly compassionate and sorrowful all at once.
Uplifting piano chords sit amongst an orchestral arrangement heavy on strings and woodwind, the cinematic, swooping arrangement perfectly suiting the lyrics, panoramic and uplifting without ever feeling schmalzy or overdone; Gabriela Martina’s alluring, graceful vocal performance carries the song, bewitching and classy, hand-in-glove with the tenderness and elegance of the narrative.
‘I Will Carry You’ is an absolute treasure, inviting the listener to feel comfort and connection, hope and composure, and perhaps – just perhaps – a little less of the desolation and detachment otherwise wrought across the past twelve months.
‘I Will Carry You’ is released on the 11th December. Follow Alise Ashby on Facebook and Instagram.
Review by Alex Holmes