CMU Approved

Approved: Yemrot

By Andy Malt | Published on Tuesday 8 November 2022

Jimi Tormey – aka Yemrot – has just released his debut mini-album ‘The Sunken Garden’, an astonishing body of work that introduces an artist who arrives fully formed as a truly great singer-songwriter. On it, he combines folk and psychedelia to impressive effect.

Two figures inspired the release, Tormey’s late father – in whose home studio the mini-album was recorded following his death – and a fictional character called Dill Dandin. The story of Dandin’s encounter with a sinkhole is told in the song ‘The Ballad Of Dill Dandin’ and also inspired the record’s title.

“The character of Dill Dandin that formed in my mind was funny and so was enjoyable to juxtapose with some of the more serious or emotional themes of my music”, says Tormey. “It was also fun to make music to the framework of a narrative in using sounds and changes of atmosphere to accent the story I had written”.

But it is Tormey’s father who really looms large over the mini-album. Following his death, Tormey began writing and recording what would become this release. Playing most of the instruments himself, he also drafted in his mother Lisa to play violin and viola, and sister Tuli and brother Eric to provide harmonies.

Tormey’s grief as he worked through his loss is starkest on the real standout track ‘Big Tree’, of which he says: “The lyrics were mostly spur of the moment reflections of how I was feeling in relation to loving and missing my dad. The chorus line ‘happiness is a decision’ was a little jab at toxic positivity and some of the advice people tried to give me in the aftermath”.

Watch a stunning live version of ‘Big Tree’, performed in the Margate Caves with the Institute Collective choir, here: