SHANNON LAY
Shannon Lay’s latest album, Geist feels like a window - or a mirror - into possibilities of the self and beyond. Geist is tender intensity, placeless and ethereal. It exists in the chasms of the present -- a world populated by shadow selves, spiritual awakenings, déjà vu, and past lives. As a whole, Geist is both esoteric and accessible.
LANDE HEKT
Lande Hekt’s natural state of being is in the writing of a song. Having crafted politically aware, heart-on-sleeve, punchy yet tender, punk-flecked songs with her band Muncie Girls, Lande turned her hand to an even more personal songwriting approach as she embarked on writing a solo record - 2021’s ‘Going To Hell’. The debut full-length was released via queer and trans run independent label Get Better Records (who will also partner with Lande on the new album, while Lande’s new venture Prize Sunflower Records will release in the UK) and documented her experience coming out as gay. It set out her stall as a solo artist with supreme storytelling abilities and a knack for understatedly luminous melodies. Lande’s music sits beautifully alongside such essential artists as The Wedding Present, The Sundays, The Replacements, Sleeper and Sharon Van Etten
Lande has toured in the UK supporting Alvvays, in Canada supporting Laura Jane Grace, she has toured in Australia and Europe and even played two shows supporting the legend that is Tricky. She has a tour supporting The Beths in the UK and Europe lined up in 2023. She has also played at Glastonbury festival, as well as events for The Big Issue and the Labour Party.
SOPHIE JAMIESON
Sophie Jamieson is a London-based songwriter who delivers intimate, visceral and uncomfortably honest songs. She explores the dips and troughs of mental health, uncompromising examinations of loneliness and pain, but always with an underlying strength that promises hope, and growth.
Her debut album, Choosing, will be released this winter on Bella Union. Following on from 2020's EPs, it aims to close this chapter by looking at self-destructive behaviour straight in the face and grappling with it more uncompromisingly than ever before. It's about trying, failing, and trying again, to pull yourself out of a downward spiral, choosing yourself and allow yourself to live.
“The title of this album is so important,” Sophie explains. “Without it, this might sound like another record about self-destruction and pain, but at heart, it’s about hope, and finding strength. It’s about finding the light at the end of the tunnel and crawling towards it.”