Ashen Ringlets
Welcome to the official YouTube channel of Ashen Ringlets, the musical project of Ellen (bass, vocals) and J Stephen Roberts (guitars, drums, sampling/programming).
Ashen Ringlets draws on ethereal gazer-tinged indie rock in the grand tradition of Slowdive, the Cocteau Twins, the Sundays, the Smiths and Catherine Wheel. Other influences include Jeff Buckley, Kate Bush, the Police, Sting, the Cranberries, the Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Joni Mitchell, Ride, Lush, Roxy Music, and Crowded House.
Ashen Ringlets
what is this we are within?
yellow leaves are on the yard
and we walk together everyday
and another day is gone
18 hours ago | [YT] | 9
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Ashen Ringlets
One year ago today we released our first EP, Waltzing Days in Maidenhead. It's meant a lot to both of us to bring this project to the point where we put something out. This EP became the home for a set of songs that we've been working with, in some cases, for many years, songs that we've done in other projects. Now, they have a permanent home.
Many thanks to those of you who got a copy of this record, whether digital or physical. We followed this one up with the "Waiting for the Time" single, and now we are in the process of creating a second EP. So this is what it's all about, being in the music and bringing it to fruition. Can't wait to announce the release of that second EP. All the best to everyone.
4 days ago | [YT] | 18
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Ashen Ringlets
It's two days from the one-year anniversary of our debut EP, Waltzing Days in Maidenhead. It's been exciting for us to take the Ashen Ringlets project to the next level. The past year or so we've tried to put more into the project, with the goal of eventually making Ashen Ringlets into a full time job. Thanks to all of you who have followed and appreciated the music, it means the world to us.
We are currently working on a second EP. We just recorded vocals for a new song called "Lily Scent", which will be on the new release. Looking forward to sharing it with everyone. We may do a quick acoustic version just to preview the song for everyone, more on that soon!
6 days ago | [YT] | 46
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Ashen Ringlets
All for waltzing days in Maidenhead
Let me get inside of your head
Lying in the gloom of the moonlight by your bed
Is like waltzing days in Maidenhead
"Waltzing Days in Maidenhead"
Ashen Ringlet
1 week ago | [YT] | 32
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Ashen Ringlets
along the sidewalk you will come
the dreams we had we're waking from
1 week ago | [YT] | 8
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Ashen Ringlets
"August Waters" is track 3 on Ashen Ringlets' debut EP Waltzing Days in Maidenhead.
Chorus:
It's always coming down like August
Into another promise
Spinning on and on to the dry earth
The chorus is the emotional heart of the song. August often carries contradictory feelings. It is warm and beautiful, yet it also signals that summer is drawing to a close. The phrase "coming down like August" suggests something inevitable, almost like a season of reflection arriving year after year. Life continually presents us with new promises, new beginnings, and new hopes, but those promises eventually settle into ordinary experience, just as rain or falling leaves return to the earth. There is no bitterness in this image; instead, it acknowledges the natural rhythm of life, where optimism and disappointment often exist side by side.
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 21
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Ashen Ringlets
"August Waters", from the EP Waltzing Days in Maidenhead, captures the strange mixture of nostalgia, loss, and quiet hope that often accompanies the passing of time. There is a sense throughout the lyrics that the speaker is looking back on a relationship or a shared chapter of life that can never be revisited exactly as it was.
Rather than expressing anger or bitterness, the song dwells in the quieter emotions that arise when people gradually realize that life has carried them somewhere different than they expected. It is about learning to live with memories instead of trying to change them.
2 weeks ago | [YT] | 30
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Ashen Ringlets
Well this makes our day! Jon Turner, who engineered the classic Cocteau Twins album Head Over Heels, liked one of our covers. Thanks Jon!
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 49
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Ashen Ringlets
J. Stephen Roberts is the songwriter behind Ashen Ringlets, but his distinctive guitar playing is just as central to the band's signature sound.
Rather than using a conventional flat pick, Roberts performs almost exclusively with a fingerstyle technique, wearing metal finger picks on each finger. The approach grew out of his early training as a classical guitarist, where playing with the fingers rather than a plectrum formed the foundation of his technique.
Over time, Roberts discovered that fingerstyle playing gave him far greater control over the complex layers of arpeggios, harmonics, and interwoven melodies that define the shimmering, dreamlike textures of Ashen Ringlets' music. The addition of finger picks provides greater attack, clarity, and sustain than bare fingertips alone, producing a brighter, more articulate tone while preserving the expressive independence of each finger. This combination of classical technique and modern amplification has become one of the defining characteristics of the Ashen Ringlets sound.
3 weeks ago | [YT] | 8
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Ashen Ringlets
Would you like to see us do a Q&A livestream here? If so, what time zone are you in and what time works best for you?
1 month ago | [YT] | 4
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