Embedded Files
Whanganui-based duo The Flow Collective return this NZ Music Month with Black Swans — a stripped-back and emotionally grounded EP exploring memory, identity, and the invisible threads that shape who we become.
A collaboration between composer-vocalist Elizabeth de Vegt and multi-instrumentalist Hamish Jellyman, Black Swans marks a shift from the ensemble-driven expansiveness of their previous work. This time, the focus is tighter — the songs are more intimate, the storytelling sharper, and the performances beautifully raw.
Written and recorded at The Stomach in Palmerston North in 2024, the EP leans into deeply personal terrain: family, grief, resilience, and the lingering imprint of the past. “These songs are about recognising how the past lives in us,” says de Vegt, who wrote the lyrics and fronts the project with a voice that’s both technically masterful and emotionally unguarded.
Jellyman’s arrangements — layering bass, brass, guitar, synths and keys — support but never overpower, allowing space for reflection. The result is a collection that lands somewhere between contemporary folk, experimental pop, and chamber songwriting — elegant and raw at once.
Black Swans is also part one of a two-part project, tracing a conceptual arc across time: past, present, future. And while the music is rooted in personal experience, its reach feels wide — quiet anthems for anyone navigating their own turning points.
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