Natalie Wildgoose has shared Nobody on the Path, the lead single from her forthcoming EP, Rural Hours, due 15th April via state51.
The track arrives as the first glimpse of a project recorded under remarkable conditions: backed by the PRS for Women fund, Wildgoose brought musicians Chris Brain and Owen Spafford to a remote bothy high in the Yorkshire Dales — two hours’ walk from the nearest village, without heating or electricity — and recorded by candlelight, fire crackling, wind at the walls. Nobody on the Path carries that atmosphere without wearing it heavily. Guitar, piano, banjo and violin gather around Wildgoose’s voice with the ease of a folk ensemble that knows the room it’s in, the music moving the way the title suggests — unhurried, open to digression, alert to what’s underfoot.
Wildgoose has spoken about the song’s origins in the physical and emotional rhythms of solitary moorland walking: “The moors record what happens on them. I think the body does the same. As a child I would walk aimlessly and often daydreamed alone, I still do. Returning to Yorkshire a few years ago to start this project, I wanted to capture those thoughts and feelings you get on solitary walks in the dales, finding quiet in the hills. This song took shape during a very real, and at points unpredictable, hormone cycle — sometimes that’s just how it happens. Sometimes the path wanders, and you will wander with it.”
It’s a statement that cuts to the heart of what makes Wildgoose’s music so affecting. Her debut EP, Come Into The Garden, made quite an impression on KLOF Mag’s Thomas Blake who concluded: When the tape hiss finally fades out, you are left surprised by the harshness of the silence it leaves behind, craving an instant return to the strange world Wildgoose conjures, submerged in sweet, subtle sound and rich in the unlearnable language of dream and memory. This new single marks such a welcome return.
Alongside the EP announcement, Wildgoose has confirmed her biggest headline show to date at Stoke Newington Old Church, London, this May — tickets on sale 10:30 am Wednesday 18th February — plus a UK tour supporting L.Y.R., the trio fronted by poet laureate Simon Armitage, and an appearance at The Great Escape.
Pre-Order Rural Hours: https://nataliewildgoose.bandcamp.com/album/rural-hours
Upcoming live shows:
16 APR // Cambridge, Storey’s Field Centre*
17 APR // Kendal, Brewery Arts*
18 APR // Liverpool, The Tung Auditorium*
19 APR // Birmingham, Bradshaw Hall*
21 APR // Nottingham, Squire Performing Arts Centre*
22 APR // Glasgow, Cottiers Theatre*
23 APR // Leeds, Brudenell Social Club (supporting Chris Brain)
24 APR // York, Pocklington Arts Centre*
25 APR // Hebden Bridge, Trades Club*
14 MAY // The Great Escape
19 MAY // London, Stoke Newington Old Church [Headline]
24-26 JUL // Deer Shed Festival
* Supporting LYR