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Music | Midwife

Midwife.Denver, Colorado.HEAVEN METAL //US [email protected] EU + UK [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Luminol | Midwife

Luminol by Midwife, released 16 July 20211. God is a Cop2. Enemy3. 20204. Colorado5. Promise Ring6. Christina's WorldMidwife is the moniker of multi-instrumentalist Madeline Johnston. She lives and works in San Miguel, New Mexico by way of Denver, Colorado, where she spent the better half of the past decade developing her experimental pop project. As a self taught guitarist and recording engineer, Midwife explores dark subject matter in her anthemic, soft-gaze hits. Self-described as “Heaven Metal,” or emotive music about devastation - catharsis. When 2020 began, Johnston had several national and international tours planned, but the pandemic shifted her focus back to recording, and back to her internal landscape. Midwife’s third full length record, Luminol, was written and produced during quarantine. Luminol is a chemical used by forensic investigators to reveal trace amounts of blood left at a crime scene. When it reacts with blood, luminol emits a chemiluminescent blue glow that can be seen in a darkened room. In the same way this chemical reveals evidence at a scene, Midwife is interested in profound truth - turning trial and tribulation into sources of light. Luminol navigates themes of incarceration, locus of control, clarity, self harm, confinement, agency, and truth-seeking, all erupting in a bioluminescent Rothko color-field of blue. The Luminol album cover shows a dark figure standing at the edge of a body of water. It symbolizes the way humanity had been on a precipice throughout 2020, to later find out they had been there all along. Being one of Midwife’s most personal records, Luminol's cover artwork is a picture of Madeline Johnston's mother taken in the 1980’s, when she was the same age as Madeline at the time of recording. By redacting the figure, Johnston hopes that anyone could see themselves there, by the water, as a form leftover when all the elements of their lives are ped away and what is left is a host.

Luminol

by Midwife

I - L | Mercury Tracer | Midwife

I - L by Mercury Tracer, released 29 May 20211. I2. II3. III4. IV5. V6. VI7. VII8. VIII9. IX10. X11. XI12. XII13. XIII14. XIV15. XV16. XVI17. XVII18. XVIII19. XIX20. XX21. XXI22. XXII23. XXIII24. XXIV25. XXV26. XXVI27. XXVII28. XXVIII29. XXIX30. 31. I32. II33. III34. IV35. V36. VI37. VII38. VIII39. IX40. XL41. XLI42. XLII43. XLIII44. XLIV45. XLV46. XLVI47. XLVII48. XLVIII49. XLIX50. L'Mercury is tracing around me an exercise and meditation on restraint within a structure built on self-imposition'

by Mercury Tracer

In / Heaven | Midwife

In / Heaven by Midwife, released 07 August 20201. In Ellipsis Landscapes2. Heaven

In / Heaven

by Midwife

Forever | Midwife

Forever by Midwife, released 10 April 20201. 20182. Anyone Can Play Guitar3. Vow4. Language5. C.R.F.W.6. S.W.I.M.As Midwife, Denver based multi-instrumentalist Madeline Johnston plays what she describes as “Heaven Metal,” or emotive music about devastation. Johnston began developing the experimental pop project in 2015 while a resident of beloved Denver DIY space Rhinoceropolis. The venue/co-op started in the early aughts and nurtured local artists until 2016, when its doors were shuttered due to high tensions surrounding the safety of DIY spaces (not coincidentally following the horrific Ghost Ship fire in Oakland). Residents were displaced around Denver and artists like Midwife were forced to start over. However, it was at Rhinoceropolis that Madeline became close with Colin Ward, an artistic confidant and friend to whom her new album, Forever, is dedicated. Madeline comments, “He was my roommate and was the embodiment of that place [Rhinoceropolis] in a lot of ways. We became really close friends there. I was always learning so much from him, about life and being an artist. He was an amazing teacher and friend to me.” When Ward p ed away unexpectedly in 2018, she turned towards sound to express the indescribable feelings that partnered with her grief. These mournful sounds ultimately developed into her new album, Forever. The 6-song LP is a latticework of soft focus guitars and precise melodies– anthems of light piercing through gray clouds of drone. On the track “C.R.F.W.,” we hear Colin Ward reading a poem that speaks of a leaf falling from a tree in autumn: “imagine the way a breeze feels against your leaf body while you finally don’t have to hold on anymore.” Johnston responds with slowly radiating tones, branches stretching out to hold the leaf one last time. “I wanted to write him a letter. I wanted to make something for him in his memory,” Madeline says of Forever. On Forever, Midwife combines ambient and dream pop into nuanced, reverb-soaked music that is equally haunting and moving

Forever

by Midwife