ABOUT

Mirror to Mine, Annie Rew Shaw’s second album as Austel, began as the final year project for her MA in music production. Over time, it grew into something grander, less scholarly and all its own, resulting in the clearest articulation yet of her singular talents as an artist and producer.

Self-producing the record in studio spaces she accessed during her degree, Mirror to Mine is a gorgeous, acoustic-led work anchored in nylon string guitar, subtle ensemble arrangements and evocative, delicately placed field recordings. Though a shift away from the piano-led sound of her acclaimed 2024 debut Dead Sea, this is no full-scale stylistic pivot  “It feels more like a homecoming,” Austel says. “Because this is the kind of music I’ve always loved.”

A solo project but collaborative affair, it has the palpable feeling of songs performed by people who know each other as intimately as musicians as they do on a personal level. The players include her brother on drums, partner on guitar and bass, and longtime friends on cello and saxophone. Encouraged by Austel to express themselves freely rather than follow strictly dictated arrangements, the swell the ensemble achieves on standouts such as ‘Hotel Room Window View’ and ‘30th Day’ are a cathartic, welcome surprises in a record that so often succeeds at its most gentle and intimate. 

Mirror to Mine’s lyrics are concerned with childhood, coming of age, personal growth and the ways early life can shape an adult’s experiences and relationships. Many of the songs were written during a lockdown-enforced stay with family in Devon, revisiting places and the memories they prompted which she hadn’t considered in years. The standout ‘White Linen’ blends field recordings from her parents’ garden with thoughts on generational trauma and the voices of a “chosen family” of friends. There may be much to resent in memories like this, but Austel avoids accusation or melodrama, and focuses on recognition and release. That thread carries through to the closing track, ‘Coast to Coast’, which ruminates on a decade-long journey from leaving home to finding belonging. “I’ve forced myself out of the bed I made when I left ten years ago,” she sings both triumphantly and with an acknowledgement of growth.

Though the music – mixed expertly by Grace Banks (English Teacher, Haim, Squid) – is often ethereal in tone, the field recordings that pepper the album ground it in the physical world. The sounds of the Brighton shoreline star in lead single ‘The Beach in December’, written following an ayahuasca ceremony that prompted a reconnection with childhood memories from a new perspective, and while other locations abound, the point is not to plot them on a map. Wherever they’re from, “those sonic totems really ground it in a deep sense of meaning for me”, says Austel. “If you were to make a film of moments of my life… I think this is the closest I can get as a songwriter and producer to doing that with sound”. 

The field recordings put the work in conversation with the likes of Jon Hopkins & King Creosote and Cassandra Jenkins, while fans of Big Thief, Elliott Smith and Bon Iver will also find much to love across its ten tracks.

The title Mirror to Mine reflects the album’s themes of place and reflection, referencing contemplation of human connection and, more corporeally, the mining towns of Cornwall that were a feature of Austel’s childhood in the South West of England. It is, most certainly, a personal and emotional record, and something of a triumph. “Even though I’ve listened to the songs so many times, I’m shocked how it really brings out a very emotional reaction in me, even now” she says. “But I do feel very much like I’m healing myself with this album. Both in terms of the lyrics, and sharing it with others”. 

- Tom Hannan

‘Warm and intimate’ - Under The Radar

‘Soft, nostalgic and quietly expansive’ - METAL

‘A gentle piece of folk-adjacent introspection…’ - CLASH

‘So gorgeous - I love the development in Austel’s sound’ - Dan Pascoe, BBC Introducing

‘Haunting and moody’ - BBC 6 Music

‘Every note is placed for ultimate impact’
- The Line Of Best Fit

‘Introspective and atmospheric’
- Afrodeutsche, BBC Radio 3 Unwind

‘Opiate and intangible… think Buckley’s Song To The Siren’ - Fresh On The Net