London-based musician and multi-disciplinary artist Natasha Khan – aka Bat For Lashes – today releases her sixth studio album ‘The Dream Of Delphi’, via acclaimed label Mercury KX.
In new album ‘The Dream of Delphi’ we meet the Motherwitch: the name Khan gives to the armour she puts on when she is exploring the depths and peaks of herself in her new capacity as a parent and protector. 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 her love of female and trans artists like Delia Derbyshire, Constance Demby and Beverly Glenn Copeland, and her long standing interests in ambient and orchestral film soundtracks.
While Natasha Khan has always created visual stories and films for her albums, this new era sees her pushing the creative further than ever with the ambitious release of a counterpart album film, expanding on the official music videos into an emotive, visceral exploration of the album. Produced in collaboration with creative director and choreographer Alexandra Green and directed by Freddie Leyden, the film acts as a visual score and accompaniment to the album, punctuated and anchored by the official music videos from the album’s singles.
‘The Dream of Delphi – A New Transmission’ is a visual narrative that accompanies the calling, the creating and birthing of a child, with an exploration of both the human rawness that surrounds that experience and the mythical and universal realisations that have occurred for Natasha during her journey of motherhood. The dance pieces include partner work that explores the pressures, bonding, and tenderness that occurs when lovers become parents, and the dances with the two women hint at Natasha’s relationship with the midwives, the best friends and the sisterhood she felt she so badly needed around the birth of her daughter. The choreography – based on the simple and mundane actions of everyday life – highlights the stark beauty within simplicity and mundanity, by weaving together raw emotions into a series of dance theatre moments that are emblematic of the way that a relationship changes, shifts and also breaks down; movements developed by Khan as part of her all-new live show, first teased at Meltdown Festival last summer.
After teasing new music and live staging last year as part of the Christine & The Queens curated Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre, Bat For Lashes will take to the stage again this summer for her first run of headline concerts for five years with a highly conceptual show that combines movement and elements of performance art alongside her virtuosic vocal performance and live band.
Last year Bat For Lashes released ‘Motherwitch’, a hand-illustrated reimagining of Tarot using multiple original female archetypes, visual symbols and an abstract spiritualist painters’ colour palette across 40 cards to provide a storyteller’s guide into the mysteries and beauty of our own internal landscapes. The Motherwitch oracle decklands somewhere between Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s ‘Oblique Strategies’ and the Wild Unknown Tarot Deck, while the deck also stands alone as a bespoke art object in and of itself. The 40 cards were entirely designed and conceived by Khan, creating an oracle deck for use as a tool for the creative process and also as aconduit to the subconscious realms.Produced in collaboration with East London wellness brand She’s Lost Control, the deck is available to purchase HERE.
‘The Dream of Delphi’ marks a stark new chapter in the already varied, and critically acclaimed story of Bat For Lashes. Welcome to ‘The Motherwitch’s’ domain.
The Dream Of Delphi Tracklist:
1. The Dream Of Delphi
2. Christmas Day
3. Letter To My Daughter
4. At Your Feet
5. The Midwives Have Left
6. Home (Single Version)
7. Breaking Up
8. Delphi Dancing
9. Her First Morning
10. Waking Up
11. The Dream of Delphi (Bonus Extended Strings Version)
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