Labour of love

With the debut album from his For Those I Love project, David Balfe emerged with an astonishing ode to grief. On second album, Carving the Stone, he zooms out to look at inequality, gentrification and work

- Will Richards

WHENEVER FRIENDS WOULD ask David Balfe how work was going on his new album, he'd tell them the same thing: "I'm just carving the stone." He'd been using the same phrase for years before to explain how he was moving through tough periods in his life, as if to say: "I'm working on myself. I'm discovering something and I'm chiselling it out."

Carving the Stone, the second album from Balfe's project For Those I Love, comes four years after the worldwide release of his astonishing, revelatory debut album. For Those I Love had existed in ripped CD form, circulated between Balfe's friends and family in Dublin, for a few years prior to its discovery by the music industry.

It immediately demanded a wide release though after those beyond his inner circle discovered his brutally frank, beautifully told stories of his late best friend and the grief that engulfed Balfe and those around him in the aftermath of his death. Over sharp and incisive electronic instrumentals, he dove deep into both the initial crush and the rippling continuation of grief.

Of sharing the story, Balfe told Rolling Stone UK in 2021: "I feel the guilt because there's an element of personal benefit that I receive from speaking about a tragedy that happened to my best friend, and it puts not just his laundry in the street but also that of my peers, of our shared circle, of family. Thankfully, these are the same people who are encouraging me to do it."

Many people, and at times Balfe himself, considered For Those I Love to be a conceptual, one-album project, and though Carving the Stone doesn't examine grief as directly as the debut album, its discussions of societal shifts and community-wide issues tackle subjects that naturally relate to the topics covered on For Those I Love.