The Soft-Life Soundtrack: Still Pond’s ‘Above the Clouds’.

Still Pond’s debut album Above the Clouds (released November 11) holds the kind of stillness you only find when you step away from everything, crafting something above the noise in every sense. Across its 10 tracks, Still Pond — the moniker of Austin Hankinson — keeps that calm close, carried by the warm, light undercurrent of indie folk rock.

The album feels shaped as much by its surroundings as by its sound. Recorded last summer in the quiet of Idyllwild, California at Jon O’Brien’s mountain studio (whose credits include Young the Giant and Hannah Connolly), the album absorbed the ease of its environment, where open air and silence naturally pull the music toward spaciousness. O’Brien supported an environment that allowed that openness to remain, giving Still Pond and producer Isaiah Jose room to let the songs expand at their own pace.

Still Pond and producer Isaiah Jose shaped the songs slowly, trusting instinct over direction. Piano, Still Pond’s first instrument, anchors much of the emotional tone, while guitars from both artists move gently across spacious arrangements. Banjo, steel guitar, and violin surface occasionally, arriving only where the songs seem to invite them.

One of the album’s most quietly striking moments arrives in “Cell”, where birdsong captured just outside the studio opens the track. It feels less chosen than discovered — an unforced detail that mirrors Still Pond’s love of bird-watching and how naturally the album allows its environment to come through. For a track Hankinson describes as a moody reflection on feeling stuck, the birdsong lands not to disrupt the feeling but to sit within it, hinting that even when things feel unmoving, the world continues around us.

Still Pond’s songwriting moves with that same still-water patience, favoring plainspoken honesty. The lyrics linger, reflecting feeling the way stillness holds a surface — not heightened, just simply present. It’s writing that trusts quiet recognition to carry its own weight.

‘Above the Clouds’ arrives as a first step taken with intention. There’s no hurry to define what comes next, only a trust that growth will happen in its own time. With an acoustic EP already underway for next year, the project points forward with the same quiet steadiness it’s built on. It’s less a moment meant to announce itself, and more the beginning of something meant to stay, above the noise.