Irish musician Maria Somerville announces her second album, "Luster," for release on April 25. It also marks her debut with 4AD. The single "Garden" is released alongside the announcement. The track immerses her siren-like vocals in a sound of whirring feedback, airy percussion, and nostalgic guitars, evoking memories of the classic 4AD era. Last year, the hypnotic shoegaze track "Projections" was released, with which Somerville laid the first clues toward the sound of her upcoming album. Somerville grew up in rural County Galway on Ireland's mountainous and rugged west coast. She later moved to Dublin, where she worked on her signature sound: atmospheric dream pop, informed by the landscape of her youth. She first captured the ethereal guitar riffs, sparse rhythms, and electronic ambient sounds on her 2019 self-released album "All My People," a work that wades knee-deep in nostalgia and longing. It wasn't until she returned to Connemara, to a house not far from the one where she grew up—and overlooking one of the country's largest lakes, Lough Corrib—that Somerville began working on the music that would eventually become the new album, "Luster." While her DIY debut wrapped memories and melancholy in foggy slowcore, the twelve new tracks reveal an artist much more confident in the path she's chosen. "I can see more clearly than I could before. I know now what's true for me," she aptly sings in "Trip." Strengthened by her new, old surroundings and encouraged by her community, Somerville rediscovered her creative energies. The ground proved fertile in the truest sense of the word when she recorded her first demos in relaxed living room sessions, which were later refined with J. Colleran and Ian Lynch (Lankum), among others, and finally mixed by New York engineer Gabriel Schuman (Oneohtrix Point Never, Princess Nokia, David Byrne). Somerville also achieved a certain popularity through her "Early Bird Show" on NTS Radio, where she has hosted a twice-weekly morning program since 2021, presenting music ranging from shoegaze to traditional Irish folk. That same year, she signed with 4AD, where she has released two compilation albums and toured with her labelmates Dry Cleaning. In 2025, she will be performing with Band Shows. play all over the world, including concerts in Germany.
