The layered rhythms of Pallmer’s “Carbon” reflect the themes of the song around identity and humanity and recapturing the feeling of being alive rather than that of someone going through the motions of what it would look like to be a living person. The rapidly plucked cello figure that runs through much of the song as a loop is like being acutely aware of the flow of blood in the body while the bowed melody is like the warmth and wakefulness of conscious human existence, the cycling, bubbly tone a little like a focus on the pattern and sensation of breathing. Emily Kennedy’s vocals are reminiscent of an old folk and jazz style that lends itself well to expressing authentic human emotion and experience, at times even hearkening to a more folk-inflected Suzanne Vega song. In the music video directed by Jordan Anthony Greer we see Saint John-based dancer G.C. Grant moving about freely in a wintry forest landscape shot along the Nashwaak River but it’s not random, it seems more like a ritual designed to re-center and reconnect with oneself, to exult in the sensations of living in a body and in being present rather than living as a presentation. The latter being something we’ve come to internalize as normal in too many areas of life and the song explores the feeling of that imposed and adopted dissociation and a path back to actual normalcy. Watch the video for “Carbon” on YouTube and follow Pallmer from Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada, at the links below. Pallmer’s new album Swimming released on January 12, 2024.
Queen City Sounds and Art 
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