L.Mayland (Lizzie Mayland, guitarist of the double BRIT award-winning band The Last Dinner Party) is pleased to announce the arrival of their debut solo EP, The Slow Fire Of Sleep, on 9th May. This news comes alongside their inaugural single, ‘Lighthouse’.
The project’s only taster, ‘Lighthouse’, arrives with an ethereal visualiser directed by frequent collaborator, Cal McIntyre.
“’Lighthouse’ is about being in a healthy romantic relationship for the first time in my life and the fear of losing that,” Lizzie says of the track. “I storyboarded an idea for the video, then I heard Cal wanted to direct it and I was so pleased. He captured the elements which were the most important to me before lending his own aesthetic talents.”
Mayland first sowed the seeds which would go on to become their debut The Slow Fire Of Sleep EP during the liminal space between tours with their band The Last Dinner Party – neither on-the-road nor spiritually reacclimatised to their day-to-day existence back home. “These tracks definitely grew from those periods,” they say. “Suddenly finding myself in my quiet flat and filling that silence with my guitar and these sad songs. It was a way to process what was happening in my life, to come back to myself.”
The Slow Fire Of Sleep’s five tracks showcase a more intimate side of Mayland’s talents, informed by Nick Drake, Eva Cassidy and Adrianne Lenker alongside the ambient works of Brian Eno and seminal film soundtracks including Alex Turner’s Submarine EP and Oliver Coates’ Aftersun compositions.
Titular track and EP closer ‘The Slow Fire Of Sleep’ was borne out of hopelessness regarding the world’s ongoing environmental crisis. Juxtaposing the delicate finger work which precedes its outro, the track drops the cur’s debut solo collection with a devastating sense of scale. “It was important to me that the end of the song didn’t feature my voice at all,” Lizzie explains. “I wanted an apocalyptic feeling, like a texture, that Will and Immy [producers Will Lister and Imogen Williams] captured perfectly.”
An isolated youth learning to articulate their relationship with gender [‘Mother Mother’]. A student formed by the countryside and now residing in a concrete jungle [‘Homeward’]. An adult who is working hard to maintain their first healthy romantic relationship from across the globe [‘Lighthouse’ and ‘From the Other Side of the World I’d Hear You’]. The Slow Fire Of Sleep marks a collection of tracks which sees their narrator exploring the spectrums of vulnerability, loneliness and introspection with a beguiling honesty.
DEBUT EP
Photo credit: Cal McIntyre