Bat for Lashes, a.k.a. Natasha Khan, will release her sixth album, The Dream Of Delphi, on May 31 via Mercury KX. She teased the LP with the evocative and personal title track, named after her daughter Delphi, who was born in California during lockdown in 2020.
“This is the manifesto of the album,” Khan explained of the album in a statement. “It’s like a spell being cast. It’s the conjuring, the manifestation, the drawing-down of Delphi from the ether. This is me calling on her soul. It’s about going up into the stars and down into the underworld simultaneously, how celestials and deep guttural sounds can come together, how that reflects the journey I went on. It’s about what happens when you’re stretched physically, mentally, even vaginally!”
She added, “I think it’s just humbled me, too, becoming a mother. It’s made me feel more vulnerable than I’ve ever felt before. But I feel more human, more embodied. I can’t escape life by making beautiful things as much as I did. But there’s sort of a beauty to my mortality now.”
Khan shared an ethereal music video for the single, which was shot earlier this winter in the English countryside and produced in collaboration with creative director and choreographer Alexandra Green and directed by Freddie Leyden. The video will form the first chapter of a yet-to-be-announced long-form album film, according to a press release.
The Dream of Delphi was inspired by Khan’s journey into motherhood. It features a character called the Motherwitch, which is the name Khan gives to the armor she puts on when she is exploring the depths and peaks of herself in her new capacity as a parent and protector.
“I’ve turned the mother in me into this more potent, heightened archetype of the aspects of myself that are a mother,” Khan said. “[The Motherwitch] helps me be able to take something so vulnerable and personal out into the world – I felt I couldn’t just do it as Natasha, because it’s so, so deep.”
In addition to the album, Khan announced a series of tour dates in the U.K., marking her first headlining tour in the country in five years. Tickets go on sale March 1, with an artist presale available from Feb. 28.
The Dream Of Delphi Tracklist:
1. The Dream Of Delphi
2. Christmas Day
3. Letter To My Daughter
4. At Your Feet
5. The Midwives Have Left
6. Home
7. Breaking Up
8. Delphi Dancing
9. Her First Morning
10. Waking Up
11. The Dream of Delphi (Bonus Extended Strings Version)
