Bat For Lashes announces sixth album ‘The Dream of Delphi’ and new UK tour
'It’s about going up into the stars and down into the underworld simultaneously,' said Natasha Khan of her latest album.
By Nick Reilly
Bat For Lashes has announced details of her sixth studio album The Dream Of Delphi, as well as sharing its title track and details of a new UK tour.
The acclaimed London singer-songwriter, real name Natasha Khan, will release her latest record on May 31 – which marks her first release since signing with new label Mercury KX.
The first taste arrives today in the shape of ‘The Dream Of Delphi’, which ruminates on Khan’s experiences of motherhood and is described as being a “part pagan invocation, part celestial synth epic”.
Khan added of the track: “It’s like a spell being cast. It’s the conjuring, the manifestation, the drawing-down of Delphi from the ether. This is me calling on her soul.”
She continued: “It’s about going up into the stars and down into the underworld simultaneously, how celestials and deep guttural sounds can come together, how that reflects the journey I went on. It’s about what happens when you’re stretched physically, mentally, even vaginally!”
“I think it’s just humbled me, too, becoming a mother,” she added. “It’s made me feel more vulnerable than I’ve ever felt before. But I feel more human, more embodied. I can’t escape life by making beautiful things as much as I did. But there’s sort of a beauty to my mortality now. Motherhood I thought would take me away from my art, but it opened up this massive world.”
A further description of the record adds: “Moments of quiet domesticity sit amongst flashes of existential wonder in these ten spiralling compositions. Lyrics about the break-up of Natasha’s relationship with Delphi’s father interweave with the place of the mother in the never-ending cycle of life, death and rebirth.
“Ideas and sounds both ancient and modern also mesh mesmerisingly together, pianos, bass flutes and harps blending with organs, mellotrons and the whirling sound patterns of synthesisers, inspired by [Khan’s] love of female and trans artists like Delia Derbyshire, Constance Demby and Beverly Glenn Copeland, and her longstanding interests in ambient and orchestral film soundtracks.”
You can check out the album details in full below, alongside details of a UK tour.
1. ‘The Dream Of Delphi’
2. ‘Christmas Day’
3. ‘Letter To My Daughter’
4. ‘At Your Feet’
5. ‘The Midwives Have Left’
6. ‘Home’
7. ‘Breaking Up’
8. ‘Delphi Dancing’
9. ‘Her First Morning’
10. ‘Waking Up’
11. ‘The Dream of Delphi (Bonus Extended Strings Version)’
12 – O2 Academy 2, Oxford
18 – Town Hall, Birmingham
19 – Beacon, Bristol
24 – Barbican, London
25 – De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill On Sea
27 – Aviva Studios, Manchester