Philadelphia’s Endlessly makes cathartic art in the dreamscape of “Shaking”

Endlessly | still from video

Local songwriter Rachel Wetzel of Aster More and Dreambook has debuted a new project, Endlessly, that documents her experience as a cancer survivor. Wetzel announced the project with a video for the song “Shaking,” and a full EP called Move Softly On Thin Ice will be released next month.

Wetzel wrote the songs on the EP after entering remission, capturing the fear and grief she faced while battling cancer and channeling it into cathartic art. Shot at Glen Foerd on the Delaware by local artist and fellow cancer survivor Cindy Stockton Moore, the “Shaking” video gives the song’s emotional a striking visual; Wetzel wanders the historic mansion as two versions of herself, a patient in a hospital gown and a woman with a guitar, to illustrate what it’s like to be faced with an illness.

Wetzel writes on the project’s Bandcamp page:

In 2014, I was diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer. I was young & healthy at the time. This record is a reflection of the feelings I’ve bottled up, the challenges I’ve endured, the hurdles I’ve overcome but mostly it’s about death — a subject I’ve come all too familiar with. I hope it helps another survivor feel normal. I hope you gain a deeper understanding of living with a disease.