Maria Somerville – 21+

By the time Irish musician Maria Somerville started writing Luster, her landmark label debut for  4AD, she had lived away from her native Connemara for quite some time. Having grown up  amongst the wild, mountainous terrain of Galway’s rural west coast, she later relocated to  Dublin, where she patiently developed an atmospheric dream pop signature inspired by the  landscape of her youth – a spellbinding soundworld of gusting ambient electronics, ethereal  guitar strums, sparse percussion, and hushed lyrical vignettes. In 2019, this culminated in All  My People, a self-released LP steeped in reverb, nostalgia and a yearning for home that won  praise from discerning press and listeners alike. 

It was upon returning to Connemara, in a house near where she was raised overlooking one of  the country’s largest lakes, Lough Corrib, that work commenced on the songs that would  eventually become Luster, an album that illuminates Somerville’s music anew, pushing it  forward in both sound and spirit. Where All My People conveyed memories and melancholic  longing with misty slowcore balladry, these 12 tracks show us an artist who’s more assured in  the path her life has taken, and the person she’s become in the process. As she sings in ‘Trip’ – “I can see more clearly than I could before. I know now what’s true for me.” 

Invigorated by her surroundings and emboldened by her community, Somerville found a  renewed sense of creative energy upon returning to home soil. It provided “fertile ground”  for free-flowing recording sessions in her small living room studio, where she stitched together  demos that were then fleshed out with friends and collaborators, and later mixed by the  renowned New York-based engineer Gabriel Schuman. Contributors included producers J.  Colleran, Brendan Jenkinson and Diego Herrera, aka Suzanne Kraft, as well as Lankum’s  Ian Lynch, whose uilleann pipe drones you can hear in ‘Violet’, and Margie Jean Lewis, whose  violin bows reverberate through the ambient haze of ‘Flutter’. Sessions with musicians Henry  Earnest and Finn Carraher McDonald (aka Nashpaints) helped “tie it all together”, while  contributions from friends Roisin Berkley and Olan Monk enshrined the companionship  they’ve shared since Somerville returned to Connemara. 

Listeners have had a window into Somerville’s world every Monday and Tuesday morning since  2021 via her beloved Early Bird Show on NTS Radio, where her dawn chorus selections range  from blissful ambient and shoegaze to traditional Irish folk songs. Since signing to 4AD that  same year, Somerville has toured with her label mates Dry Cleaning, and released two covers  for the label’s 40th anniversary celebrations – taking on Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Kinky Love’ and Air  Miami’s ‘Sea Bird’. With the release of Luster, she has signaled the arrival of a new era that will  see her play around the world in 2025 accompanied by a live band. Rest assured though, no  matter where Somerville goes, she’ll take a piece of home with her – a living, breathing,  timeless essence you can sense in every note, as clear as the air by the Corrib.