Mary Epworth
East Anglian songwriter and singer Mary Epworth follows on from the critically lauded 7" singles The Saddle Song and Black Doe with her first full length record Dream Life, due out 5th March 2012 on Hand Of Glory Records.
Dream Life inhabits an otherworldly place, rich with the sounds of dream pop tinged psychedelia, stately brass bands and fuzz guitars.
A singer-songwriter album that ventures way beyond the ubiquitous 'girl and an acoustic guitar' formula, Dream Life is as much about use of space and treatment of sound as it is about concise and inspired song writing.
"With this album I wanted to forget limitations of genre, era, or instrumentation and to make sure every song tells its own story, and has its own atmosphere.
"On Black Doe that means a wall of shivering distortion, and on Those Nights, Casio beats and backwards reverb. On If I Fall Now we even made some ¼ inch tape loops, radiophonics workshop style. We had a lot of fun with sounds." said Mary.
Dream Life the album was recorded over two years in various locations including a snowbound Norfolk barn, and an art-deco apartment above a brothel in East Berlin.
Produced by fellow Hand Of Glory artist Will Twynham (Adapter Adapter) then mixed by Thom Monahan (Vetiver, Devendra, Fruit Bats, Pop Levi) Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Grizzly Bear, These New Puritans) and the prolific Ian Button (Death In Vegas, Extradition Order), the album manages to marry disparate songs with the continuous thread of lush and dreamlike sounds, rich harmonies, and soulful vocals.