Like the many Banded Stilts that spread across the cover of her newest albumFlood,Stella Donnellyis wading into uncharted territory. Here, she finds herself discovering who she is as an artist among the flock, and how abundant one individual can be.Floodis Donnellys record of this rediscovery: the product of months of risky experimentation, hard moments of introspection, and a lot of moving around.

Donnellysearly reflections on the relationship between the individual and the many can be traced back to her time in the rainforests of Bellingen, where she took to birdwatching as both a hobby and an escape in a border-restricted world. By paying closer attention to the natural world around her,Donnellyrecalls I was able to lose that feeling of anyones reaction to me. I fo