Back in March, we shared ‘Flagbearers’, the first song from Paul Armfield‘s forthcoming new album Domestic (out on 11th Sept). Each song is accompanied by a linocut print featuring a plant considered native to the UK and corresponding to each letter of the album’s title, hence ‘D’ for Daffodil, ‘O’ for oak etc.
The songs on Domestic are based around the theme of ‘home’, whether this be the four walls that surround you, the street, town, country or continent where you were born or of which you are a resident. Paul explains ‘As I sat at home writing these songs over a long winter, my children away at university, my wife at work, it felt like I was cocooned away, isolated and safe from the madness unfolding in the outside world with Brexit and the refugee crisis. Given the circumstances it was hardly surprising that emerging lyrics were about place, warmth, shelter, belonging, allegiance: notions of ‘home’ kept popping up like a leitmotiv so I’ve called the album ‘Domestic’.’
For his latest single ‘You’, one of the loveliest songs I’ve heard in a very long time, he presents what he calls, “a long overdue love-song to his wife of 25 years”. Says Paul “Whilst in the studio recording the album I came across these lyrics in my pile of ideas, I don’t remember writing them but the words suggested a tune, within the hour it was written, we recorded it the next day”.
Just as the words are enough to melt any heart, the accompanying video by Berlin photographer Laura Braun is an enchanting companion featuring bees, flowers and a starry-eyed Paul Armfield…far from being saccharine, it’s frank, open and warmly humorous. It’s also our Song of the Day.
The self-released album was financed through a crowdfunding project, which despite overlapping into the lock-down managed to raise 125% of its £8,000 target. The album will be released as a limited edition of 1000 signed and boxed cds with prints, 100 boxed vinyls each containing 10 handprinted linocuts, and a standalone vinyl.
A Europe-wide tour is booked for November and December, fingers are tightly crossed.
Read our interview with Paul from 2014.
Pre-Order on CD/Deluxe Vinyl here: http://paularmfield.com/paul-armfield-on-linyl-thats-lino-and-vinyl/