In the autumn of 2017, after many months of intense touring, we put out a call. We hadn't written any music, or practised, for far too long – did anyone have a place to which we could retreat, to work on new material?
Amidst many kind offers of help, our friend Jon introduced us to Paul and Jella, who offered us a week in a cottage deep in the
In the autumn of 2017, after many months of intense touring, we put out a call. We hadn't written any music, or practised, for far too long – did anyone have a place to which we could retreat, to work on new material?
Amidst many kind offers of help, our friend Jon introduced us to Paul and Jella, who offered us a week in a cottage deep in the west Cumbrian Lakes.
This album is the result. It was an incredible gift, to carve out time away from the world, and explore ideas long hoarded in notebooks. We stocked the fridge, banked the fire, and wrote.
We found that we were writing about hope. The troubled world didn't seem to need any more sad songs! We had been lucky enough to experience kindness, solace, rest and welcome, and these were now the things we wanted to sing about.
We returned home from Cumbria with a suitcase full of songs. Songs to sing against sadness, loneliness, and the erosions of time; songs of the hills, of wild rain and sunshine, of the circles of all things; songs for tired hearts, troubled minds, and soulsick wanderers. Songs of hope.
Inspired by the sound we were making in the cottage, we wanted to approach the recording differently to previous albums we've made. We decided to capture the live sound of the duo, keeping to two instruments, two vocals, with the occasional addition of foot percussion, foot pedalled shruti, and harmonica on a neck brace.
We hope that you enjoy it.
Hannah and Phil x