Heliotropes formed in 2009 by Jessica Numsuwankijkul and Amber Myers when Numsuwankijkul posted an advert on Craigslist, initially trying to find musicians to perform Brian Eno-style music, but they found this to hard. They played a show with Astrid Pierce and one of the members, Cici Harrison, eventually joined the band a year later. On the subject, Numsuwankijkul said "I remember being like, “Oh, we wish she was in our band” and then a year later, she was." Nya Abudu answered the advert on Cragslist and the line-up was complete. They began to form their sound, instead of playing Eno-style songs. The band signed to Manimal Vinyl in 2012 and released various single, three of which would appear on their first album. The album was recorded between 2012 and 2013. The title of the album comes from a song originally titled "A Constant Sea", but they didn't have enough time to record it.
Packaging
The album cover features artwork by Nor Ashraf, a Malaysian artist that the band met over the internet. Numsuwankijkul said that once she'd seen it she thought that it would always be the album cover. She also said she sees it as a follow up to the "Ribbons" cover, taken by Koen Jacobs of a Ram who had just finished drinking some water.
Release
After the recording, they went on their first US tour with Esben and the Witch. The band released a new song titled "Psalms" as a free download on the Rolling Stone website. They later on announced their song "Quatto". Both tracks were to be released on the band's debut album, A Constant Sea. A Constant Sea was released on 18 June 2013 on Manimal Vinyl as a digital download, but limited vinyl versions are to come soon.
Critical reception
Spin Magazine gave the album an 8/10 rating. Bowlegs Music made the album their record of the day saying that "A Constant Sea isn’t the sound ofa band that met both only four years ago and in a completely different musical guise. It sounds like a group of long-time friends playing the music that they love, and playing it very well," giving it 8.4 and Allmusic said "Those who make it through the assault of riffs and overall detached feel of much of the record will be treated to obscured gems like "Christine," a near-perfect album closer that revisits moonlit '50s balladry through a Mazzy Star lens."
