In a couple of weeks, Helen Ballentine’s hazy-reverie project Skullcrusher will follow 2022’s Quiet The Room with the new album And Your Song Is Like A Circle. We’ve already posted her songs “Exhale,” “March,” and “Dragon.” Now, just before the LP drops, she’s dropped another sad-lullaby bomb on us. This one is called “Living.” L-I-V-I-N, man.

“Living” is a spectral zone-out that exists at the exact middle point between Grouper and coffeehouse folk. It’s soft and evocative and generally unreal, but it still coheres into a structured song with a defined melody. Here’s what Ballentine says about it:

One day, I was wandering around Brooklyn, and I felt like I was watching everything through a window or on a screen. I felt like everyone was moving so fluidly and certainly like moving through a piece of choreography. “Living” is about being a voyeur, catching a glimpse of brief moments of people’s lives. Like watching a play through a small peep hole, or through the slit of a curtain. I wonder if I am the same. If my life feels a part of this production or if it exists in a small detail somewhere off stage

Below, check out the studio version of “Living” and Skullcrusher’s live-performance video for the track.

And Your Song Is Like A Circle is out 10/17 on Dirty Hit.