A Happy Return - Hamewith

A Happy Return
Hamewith
Spillage Fete
UK, 2025
LP

For over 15 years now, the loose collective behind the Spillage Fete label has been constructing cozy little dens of records, domestic, modest instrumentals nestled in jackets with congruently striking-yet-organic artwork. That distinctive visual touch comes courtesy of Aimée Henderson, whose partner Mat Fowler records as A Happy Return.

Hamewith is the couple’s most significant collaboration yet, with Henderson painting a unique cover for every single copy (it’s an edition of 300). These were originally displayed in an exhibition in their home, a stone house on the coast of Scotland, in East Neuk of Fife. It makes a world of sense that music this homey and self-determined would grow out of such a home. And the invitation to visit this place in spirit is one of this record’s chiefest pleasures.

But is it just me, or do I detect an uneasy wind also whistling at the gate? There’s a bit of fog and gloom hanging over the first few tracks in particular. I can’t help but think how increasingly difficult it is to shut the world out, to avoid encroachment from the great outside. And the scope of Hamewith seems to encompass that, too. There’s a difference between a refuge and a retreat. But we all need to come in from the cold sometimes.

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FROM THE LABEL:

Words by Jack Rollo

......... 

As we arrive at Hamewith there is a fire ticking in the grate. 

Mat has a record on, something gentle and scattered sounding. 

Aimée is organising things in her painting studio where they have fixed up a bed for us. Agnes is at a friend’s house but coming back soon. Perched over the sea at East Neuk it is a low stone house, battered by the wind and warmed by the pale sunshine. But more than a place, it is a space, a feeling, an approach to living and collaborating, a whole world. 

A world that also spins here, on this vinyl record. 

While we drink tea by the fire the conversation turns to moments of revelation. The way out of yourself and towards everyone and everything else via making and doing on a small scale in a small place. This shift in scale and conception is important to keep In mind while listening. This is music born out of a sort of homemade ecstatic. 

Guitars hum and chime. Unidentifiable electronics swoop and splutter. Cassette tapes reused a hundred times stop and start again. 

Miniature constructions of time and music pile up on a desk by the window. Aimée paints each cover differently from the last in a labour of love and concentration. Agnes tries out her makeup collection on Mat. Outside the sea shifts and the sky shines. 

All in all Hamewith is a home and a collection of music. A trial run just to show us what might be possible. A maquette for a different way of making, thinking and listening.