Irish musician Maria Somerville will share her second album and debut project on 4AD, Luster, this Friday April 25. Ahead of the release, Somerville has now shared one final single off the record, ‘Spring’ — a whirring and atmospheric dreamgaze track, full yet fleeting with distorted acoustic strumming, ghostly siren calls, commanding head-bobbing percussion, and a surprising autotuned outro.
Over the last few months, Somerville has further introduced Luster’s haunting tranquility and lush sonic backdrop with three other singles: ‘Stonefly’ (a slinky ambient waltz accompanied by an atmospheric music video directed by Daniel Swan); ‘Garden’ (an all-consuming merger of soaring feedback, airy percussion, and nostalgic guitar chords produced by Diego Herrera, aka Suzanne Kraft); and ‘Projections’ (a wistful and romantic shoegaze track drenched in longing via fuzzed-out bass and strummed guitar). Together, these tracks shape her otherworldly yet grounded debut 4AD record, which channels her experiences on the bank of the Corrib in her native Connemara, Ireland and pays homage to the sonic tapestry woven by nostalgic 4AD artists such as This Mortal Coil.
Maria Somerville’s Luster is out this Friday April 25 on all digital platforms, as well as physical formats (CD, Clear Vinyl LP). Find more information HERE.
Praise for Maria Somerville
“What makes Luster more than just perfectly executed homage are the canny updates Somerville makes to the inspirations and references she draws on, like stitching colour into this tapestry of blacks, whites and greys.” – The Skinny ****
“With Luster Somerville manages to bring something new to the past. She creates difference rather than repetition.” – NARC ****
“With ‘Luster,’ Maria Somerville has created a sound-world which envelops like an inexorable bank of fog” -The Arts Desk ***
“A soulful take on post-punk, built out of austere guitar strums, ambient atmosphere and understated vocals that feel as if they could get lost in the breeze.” – Crack Magazine
“Maria Somerville makes music that channels nature’s elements – folk, drones and post-punk coalesce.” – Music Week
“An expansive collection of songs that stands as one of the best 4AD album in years, drawing a throughline from the early shoegaze and dream pop acts to various musicians from the past twenty years” – Tone Glow
“[‘Garden’] feels like looking at the stars, in no rush to go to sleep, one of the rare moments when being awake feels sufficiently dreamy.” – Stereogum (The 5 Best Songs of the Week)
MARIA SOMERVILLE – LUSTER
Out This Friday, April 25 on All DSPs
Physical Formats: Clear Vinyl | Clear LPE + 7” | Black White Label Bandcamp Exclusive | CD
TRACKLISTING
- Réalt
- Projections
- Garden
- Corrib
- Halo
- Spring
- Stonefly
- Flutter
- Trip
- Violet
- Up
- October Moon
LUSTER RELEASE BIO:
By the time Irish musician Maria Somerville started writing Luster, her landmark label debut for 4AD, she had lived away from her native Connemara for quite some time. Having grown up amongst the wild, mountainous terrain of Galway’s rural west coast, she later relocated to Dublin, where she patiently developed an atmospheric dream pop signature inspired by the landscape of her youth – a spellbinding soundworld of gusting ambient electronics, ethereal guitar strums, sparse percussion, and hushed lyrical vignettes. In 2019, this culminated in All My People, a self-released LP steeped in reverb, nostalgia and a yearning for home that won praise from discerning press and listeners alike.
It was upon returning to Connemara, in a house near where she was raised overlooking one of the country’s largest lakes, Lough Corrib, that work commenced on the songs that would eventually become Luster, an album that illuminates Somerville’s music anew, pushing it forward in both sound and spirit. Where All My People conveyed memories and melancholic longing with misty slowcore balladry, these 12 tracks show us an artist who’s more assured in the path her life has taken, and the person she’s become in the process. As she sings in ‘Trip’ – “I can see more clearly than I could before. I know now what’s true for me.”
Invigorated by her surroundings and emboldened by her community, Somerville found a renewed sense of creative energy upon returning to home soil. It provided “fertile ground” for free-flowing recording sessions in her small living room studio, where she stitched together demos that were then fleshed out with friends and collaborators, and later mixed by the renowned New York-based engineer Gabriel Schuman. Contributors included producers J. Colleran, Brendan Jenkinson and Diego Herrera (aka Suzanne Kraft), as well as Lankum’s Ian Lynch, whose uilleann pipe drones you can hear in ‘Violet’, and Margie Jean Lewis, whose violin bows reverberate through the ambient haze of ‘Flutter’. Sessions with musicians Henry Earnest and Finn Carraher McDonald (aka Nashpaints) helped “tie it all together”, while contributions from friends Roisin Berkley and Olan Monk enshrined the companionship they’ve shared since Somerville returned to Connemara.
Listeners have had a window into Somerville’s world every Monday and Tuesday morning since 2021 via her beloved Early Bird Show on NTS Radio, where her dawn chorus selections range from blissful ambient and shoegaze to traditional Irish folk songs. Since signing to 4AD that same year, Somerville has toured with her label mates Dry Cleaning, and released two covers for the label’s 40th anniversary celebrations – taking on Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Kinky Love’ and Air Miami’s ‘Sea Bird’. With the release of Luster, she has signaled the arrival of a new era that will see her play around the world in 2025 accompanied by a live band. Rest assured though, no matter where Somerville goes, she’ll take a piece of home with her – a living, breathing, timeless essence you can sense in every note, as clear as the air by the Corrib.
MARIA SOMERVILLE ONLINE
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