Hayden Thorpe, former singer in Wild Beasts, has announced a new EP titled Aerial Songs, out on Oct. 16 via Domino Records. It follows his 2019 debut solo album Diviner. Today, he shared the EP’s first single “Blue Crow,” along with a lyric video.
Like the rest of the EP, “Blue Crow” was inspired by the magnificent Lake District region of the U.K. The track’s light percussive crackles and Thorpe’s lustrous vocals certainly evoke an understated, majestic scene, plus the ambient synths give it an otherworldly solitude.
Thorpe says of the EP:
Since my first broody teenage attempts to make music and beyond into gradually becoming an adult concerned with making decent music, I’ve found the prospect of making work about the Lake District an off-puttingly daunting task. I’ve always felt ill equipped to even nearly match the enchantment of being within the fells.
I wouldn’t say I’m any better prepared now, it might just be that I can perhaps more precisely distil the vital affirmation I feel in the mountains. Maybe it is that I am, by now, far enough away from the blast radius of a frustrated rural youth shit show to get clear headed and attempt it.
The EP was written and self-produced by Thorpe with additional production from Nathan Jenkins (aka Bullion), Richard Formby and Fabian Prynn. It was composed while Thorpe was an artist in residence at Aerial Festival, an arts, music and performance event in his native Cumbria. This year’s event kicks off on Saturday, Sept. 26.
Listen to “Blue Crow” below, and preorder Aerial Songs here. Scroll down to view the album artwork and tracklist.
Aerial Songs EP Artwork:
Aerial Songs Tracklist:
01. Blue Crow
02. Head On A Platter
03. Set It Loose
