Woman’s Hour Release Album ‘Ephyra’ via Practise Music
Woman’s Hour release sophomore album ‘Ephyra’
[Listen here]
Add further dates to their last ever UK tour
Photo credit Matilda Hill-Jenkins
“So here we are: a broken home. Proud of what we have crafted together and accepting of our past. Tomorrow is another day. Ephyra is our eulogy.” WH
‘hopefully, it won’t be this brilliant band’s last hurrah’ Q
‘the beauty of the band’s music coexists with melancholy and bleakness’ Sunday Times Culture
‘Ephyra, the gorgeous second album from Kendal band’ Evening Standard
‘a gorgeous blend of plaintive piano, gentle electronics and tender words of love’ The Times
‘icy electronica noir’ Mojo
‘From Eden to Exile Then Into Dust is a highlight, a shape-shifting but coherently scored electronic epic about being pushed to one’s limits’ Financial Times
‘flawless textural complexities’ Electronic Sound
‘emotionally fraught slice of synthpop’ The Guardian
‘a perfect reintroduction to the band’s sleek, monochromatic dream-pop sound’ FADER
‘Ephyra may have been the demise of this band, but Woman’s Hour have created something truly special in these final throes’ DIY
‘an intimate and candid expression of the clashing grief-stricken mental states that Woman’s Hour experienced’ The Line Of Best Fit
Kendal band Woman’s Hour are proud to announce the release of their already critically acclaimed sophomore album ‘Ephyra’, which is available digitally and on limited edition vinyl via Practise Music [order here].
Due to deteriorating mental health, Woman’s Hour decided to break-up shortly before the completion of ‘Ephyra’. The break-up represented so many different things: relief, sadness, grief. But ultimately, a year after separating they felt a collective drive and desire to finish the album and draw a line in the sand. Fiona describes it as “a kind of rebirthing. An opportunity to reflect on what happened and embrace what we achieved.”
During the process of writing the album, communication between the band members became increasingly fraught and tense. The songs themselves became a way to explore these feelings and express their effect. Loud, aggressive crescendos are followed by isolated vocal harmonies or haunting foley which combines to create an intimate-yet-dynamic pallette and a bold, frank medium for the messages that are contained within. Emotions that felt too ugly or too painful to talk about were delivered as lyrics.
The process has been an unconventional one: writing an album, breaking up, leaving their label, and spending a year apart before feeling an insurpressible need to release what they made together. The release of ‘Ephyra’ affirms that Woman’s Hour are a band in flux. With a record forged from remains, ‘Ephyra’ is a post mortem examination of a band unafraid of honesty, no matter how exposing it may feel. It poses the question of whether this is the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning.
Having recently announced a London headline show at The Dome on 22 March the band have now announced the rest of their UK tour in support of ‘Ephyra’ which begins in their hometown of Kendal on 11 March.
Woman’s Hour – Ephyra
1) Don’t Speak
2) From Eden To Exile Then Into Dust
3) I Can’t Take You Seriously
4) Luke
5) Mirrorball
6) Heathen
7) It’s A Blast
8) Removal Of Hope
