South African-born songwriter tan sholto has released her new EP, christine, a five-track EP with plenty of power behind its gentle indie-folk haze, with soft acoustics tied with a delicate emotional thread. The project walks us through childhood and adolescence, a tribute to the artist’s mother, and a shared view into their relationship.
Warmth emanates throughout the performances, sometimes darker, more pained, other times, more melancholic, but optimistic with the change ahead. Moments where the guitars and vocals are joined by atmospheric plucks, and light strings are even more enticing, beautiful in their delivery.
Openness and patience bob alongside the musical foundations, holding each moment as its own, and allowing vivid portraits of ineffable but universal experiences as you grow as your parents grow too.
Tan explains, “At its core, this project is a tribute to my mom—not just as a parent, but as a woman carving out a better life for herself; with strength, sacrifice, and grace. It is honouring how love persists even when words fail, and how contradicting experiences and pain can create the most beautiful relationships.
The most intimate song on this EP is ‘tash,’ a piece that took more than a decade of understanding to fully take shape. When I was a child, my father passed away, and the experience of that loss was impossible for my mind to grasp. I didn’t understand what was really happening—only that someone who had been there suddenly wasn’t. My mom, now a single mother, couldn’t explain the weight of it to me; she was struggling with her own grief while trying to hold our family of six together. She was barely surviving. It’s only now, through the lens of adulthood, that I can see her reflection in that time—imagining the nights she must have cried herself to sleep, without the space or safety to truly process her own pain.”
The songwriting has reached audiences with plenty of placements on the radio, playlists and digital press. tan sholto is compelling at every moment, resonant and ultimately, human, each arrangement pieced together with care.
Listen here…
