Natalie Wildgoose
London folk singer-songwriter Charlie Franklin has shared ‘Patchwork of Colours’, the lead single from her forthcoming self-titled debut EP, due 27th May. Produced by Natalie Wildgoose, the EP was tracked live to tape with guitar and vocals on first takes — feather-light folk in the lineage of Laura Marling and Kate Wolf.
With its cast of crows and references to wild rain and leaden skies, Natalie Wildgoose’s ‘Rural Hours’ is music for the high moorlands and windswept hills. The loose structures and unorthodox arrangements of her songs remain, but they are brought into focus by a small ensemble. Her songs are intentionally ephemeral — part of their appeal is the charged silence they leave in their wake.
Natalie Wildgoose is our latest Off the Shelf guest, selecting ten objects from the two homes she splits her life between — London and North Yorkshire. From a childhood pillow to her grandad’s reel-to-reel tape machine, each item opens a window into the world behind her forthcoming EP Rural Hours, due April 15th via state51.
The video for River Days — visuals by Nina Maria Moslechner — shares the same sun-bleached, grain-softened quality as Natalie Wildgoose’s music: images that already look like memory. The song itself is a midsummer diary entry, caught at its edges rather than its centre. Rural Hours arrives April 15th via state51.
Chris Brain has shared Big Hill, the second single from his forthcoming album Red Sun Rising, out May 1st via Big Sun Records. Inspired by a long-promised walk in the Yorkshire Dales and featuring guest vocals from Natalie Wildgoose, the track embodies Brain’s gift for finding quiet revelation in the unhurried and the ordinary — accompanied by a live performance video.
Natalie Wildgoose has shared Nobody on the Path, the lead single from her forthcoming EP Rural Hours (15th April, state51). Wrapping her trembling vocals in guitar, piano, banjo and violin, the track draws on the physical rhythms of solitary moorland walking — music that moves the way the title suggests.