PETER HIMMELMAN – SHELTER IN PEACE
TRACK LIST
- Shelter In Peace
ABOUT THIS RELEASE
Release Date: March 27, 2020
While isolated in an apartment in New York City, the epicenter of the Covid-19 crisis, singer-songwriter Peter Himmelman wrote and recorded a new song, “Shelter in Peace,” after a text chat he’d had with a friend. “She signed off by saying ‘shelter in peace,’” Himmelman explains. “That’s how songs work. You hear something, you feel something, and if you’re lucky, it comes out as music.”
Being an avid support of “flattening the curve” via the self-sequestering measures that governments have advised, Himmelman found himself alone in his make-shift studio, unable to embrace even his children, who live nearby.
“There’s something about working, and in particular, writing alone that feels normal to me,” Himmelman relates. “I work best in solitude most days. But the problems unfold when solitude starts to bleed into isolation. As challenging as the virus itself is, left unfulfilled, the human need to be close to others would seem to be equally so.”
With lines like: “In a circle with no center, in a shape that has no form, we sit in anticipation for a world that’s been reborn,” Himmelman balances a sense of wonder that comes with not knowing —in a world that prides itself on knowing all — with the hope that in the pandemic’s aftermath, humanity will grow from the experience.
Recorded with just the artist’s guitar and vocal, the song strips bare the delusions of easy answers while providing the sense of calm that comes from knowing we have one another. “Like you, I’m looking for release. Like you, I need this night to cease. But all I can think to do, is pray for you … That you stay strong and shelter in peace.”
Press On, Himmelman’s forthcoming full album, is set for release in July 2020, with details to be announced shortly.
ABOUT PETER HIMMELMAN
