Georgia Harmer’s sophomore album, Eye of the Storm, is an empathetic exchange between past and future selves, and a deep breath of life into the veins of relationships over time. Where Harmer’s 2022 debut, Stay In Touch, chronicled introspection and growth, the heart of Eye of the Storm lies in the deeper matter of self-realization and understanding. It seeks to answer questions of what to carry, what to leave behind, and what to follow forward.

Self-produced by Georgia’s steady hand, the songs of Eye of the Storm are raw, real, vulnerable and detailed. The title track joins the idyllic “Can We Be Still,” the delicate and tender “Little Light,” and the deeply introspective “Take it On” singles that subtly piece together the holistic vision that Georgia has for this record. Listen throughout for the creaks of living room chairs, the soft echoes of a back alley garage, or the earliest seeds of ideas, brought to life on front porches and in backyard studios. Eye of the Storm captures the way music sounds when made with one’s most trusted confidantes, when ideas are given space to breathe, with precise intention and a naturally evolving vision coming to fruition.

An older sister to her debut Stay In Touch, which chronicled periods of introspection and growth, Eye of the Storm distills memories and dreams, arriving at a place of self-awareness. Like an older sister, it contains the insight of someone who has learned that the weight of the world doesn't have to fall directly on her shoulders. It captures first-time feelings in the rearview mirror, with the depth of understanding and intuition of someone who’s spent years paying close attention. “I wrote this album over the course of a number of years, so there’s a lot of growth captured between songs,” says Harmer.

She started writing the title track when she was only 18, rediscovering and finishing it years later. Now 26, the result is both reflection and resolution, a shedding of past heaviness and a turn to lightness. “Take it On” continues the conversation, confronting Georgia’s own feelings about her past; it’s an exploration of her closest relationships. “I get very caught up in the emotional world of others, sucked into the vortex of trying to navigate their inner landscapes, through empathy, the impulse to fix and heal, the desire to be let in,” Georgia says.

Relationships of all kinds are at the heart of the record, elemental to Georgia’s music and the songwriter and person she is on the whole. “My songs tend to use my relationships with other people to uncover truths about my own experience, or to communicate something unspoken to them.”

“Hazel vs The Coyote” grieves the loss of her aunt's two cats through dream-like scenes that shift in perspective. “Last Love” explores how devotion and uncertainty about forever can coexist in a romantic relationship. “Farmhouse” weaves shared memories into an apology love-letter to a friend. “Slow Down” travels through memories of her mother’s childhood, searching for stillness. We find that theme of stillness throughout the album. The first track envisions a lifetime of closeness, asking “Can We Be Still”? The guidance of “Little Light” shows us that we can. By the end of the album, “Time to Move On” leads us out of the past, and forward into the present. We find a soft place to land on “Memory Lullaby”, a final reflection on movement and time.

Eye Of The Storm was recorded live off the floor in various locations that felt comfortable and homey to Georgia – friends’ backyard garage studios and living rooms. Days and months were spent layering texture and character into the songs. The result is stripped down, exposed and vulnerable. There’s thought in every movement and sound. “I know every corner of it, every vocal imperfection and creak in the background, because everything that made it to this final form was very much intended to be there.”

Georgia’s songs are inlaid into a lush world, where every sound is a character, and every arrangement is a house built to last. You can hear the dedication and effort of a group of people who took tremendous care to bring it to life; the depths of the personal relationships behind this album in the intuitiveness of its sound. Recorded and arranged with Dylan Burchell, Julian Psihogios, Ben Whiteley, Oliver LaMantia, Jasper Smith, Gavin Gardiner and Matt Kelly, Georgia has created a work that simultaneously recalls the setting it was captured in, and creates an entirely new world with a history of its own.