Will Samson announces new album, releases new single ‘And Yet’

WILL SAMSON

Announces New Album

‘Harp Swells’

Out 8 September via 12k

Watch The Video For New Single ‘And Yet’ Here

New Tour Dates Announced, Tickets Available Here

Photo credit: Vera Marmelo. Hi-res available here.

In his over 10 years of releasing records, the music of Will Samson has always been underpinned with ambient characteristics and qualities. Though often led by his tender voice, Samson’s work is deeply textural, always offering as much space for instrumental excursions as the lyrical narratives he layers above them. Until now, Will has considered his solely-ambient work more as side-projects, contemplative digressions from his more defined musical path. Having previously released an EP via 12k back in 2016, Samson returns to Taylor Deupree’s experimental label to fully embrace the genre with the release of ‘Harp Swells’ – his first full-length ambient album which lands on 8th September.

Today (21 June), Will Samson marks this announcement with the release of his new single ‘And Yet’ which arrives alongside a cinematic music video that perfectly complements the quietly grand music. ‘And Yet’ features the vocals of Bell Orchestre’s Michael Feuerstack and Irish performance artist Maia Nunes; it opens up with layered hymn-like vocal samples before they’re slowly joined by beautiful strings which adorn the voices with a palpable sense of wonder. The track was premiered on Tom Ravenscroft’s BBC 6 Music show with co-host Deb Grant describing it as “something really special…(Will Samson is) lauded by so many”.

“Maia (Nunes) was a visiting artist resident where I recorded the album & so we would occasionally share a cup of tea during breaks. After having a conversation about our mixed ancestries and how they had often led to subtle feelings of displacement, I returned to my studio and the lyrics appeared. That one sentence was enough to capture how I was feeling (and still feel these days) and so there was nothing more that need to be said. In fact, the lyrics seemed to perfectly capture the mood of the whole album for me.

I was experimenting with sampling during this period, so the sound that begins the track is myself blowing into an empty glass bottle.”

Conceived and composed in Almada, Portugal, in the makeshift studio space he shares with Casper Clausen of Efterklang, ‘Harp Swells’ is both meditative and deliberately, consciously light. Where Samson’s previous work has been steered by melancholy – by a desire to heal himself through his music – here Will strives for brightness; an antidote to the frustrations that had swelled within him over the past few years.

Inspired by the concept of Indian devotional music, with a focus on the art of healing, ‘Harp Swells’ glistens with quiet power, wrapping listeners within its illusory flow as it gently pours forwards. It’s also a reaction to a shifting world, and an ode to the inner strength required to keep moving forwards as the walls of the real world continually feel like they’re closing in.

‘Harp Swells’ is an album of both enchantment and transience. Pulled together from all manner of inspired instruments and ideas, it offers a gorgeously glowing flow for the listeners to climb inside; a truly alluring escape from the world. In truly allowing all the superfluous noise to dissipate, Will Samson has crafted perhaps the most absorbing work of his career, one which never allowed itself to be obstructed or curtailed by the many barriers it faced from the outset. Free from conjecture and supposition, it’s a stirring document of what it means to truly let go.

Will Samson 2023 Tour Dates

06/09 – Antwerp, BE – AMOR

10/09 – Borken, DE – FARB Borken

11/09 – Hamburg, DE – Nachtasyl

15/09 – Porto, PT – Passos Manuel

28/09 – Manchester, UK – Gullivers

29/09 – Glasgow, UK – Glad Cafe

02/10 – Leeds, UK – Hyde Park Book Club

04/10 – Brighton, UK – Brunswick

20/10 – Lisboa, PT – ZDB*

28/10 – Almada, PT – Casa da Cerca

08/11 – Berlin, DE – NOME Gallery*

10/11 – Munich, DE – Heppel & Ettlich

14/11 – Brussels, BE – Pilar*

18/11 – Paris, FR – Supersonic Records

* ambient performance