MARIA SOMERVILLE

Irish musician Maria Somerville shared her second album and debut project on 4AD, Luster, in April. A few months on from its release, Somerville now announces a brand new Luster (Remixes) EP, due 21 January.

In total, the EP gives six tracks off Somerville’s already mesmerizing, wind-swept record new life in fitting, and sometimes surprising ways via its enlisted cast of friends and collaborators (Seefeel, YHWH Nailgun, Fatshaudi, colle, Asa Nisi Masa & Oscar18, and Boris).

Alongside the announcement, today finds the release of three remix tracks off the EP — Seefeel’s slow-burning ‘Stonefly’ remix, where the track is extended over 7-minutes with crackling synths and whispered cosmological refrains; colle’s (Maya McGrory of Chanel Beads) ‘Projections’ remix, where she adds to the longing inherent of the single with delicately plucked strings and lightly swirling feedback; and Brisbane-based underground dream-pop artist Fatshaudi’s (aka Rachael Ryan) swooning and romantic remix of ‘Up’, where she takes the track to an even glossier, more atmospheric plane.

Maria Somerville’s Luster, the otherworldly yet grounded record including atmospheric and whirring dreamgaze singles ‘Spring’ and ‘Garden’, channels her experiences on the bank of the Corrib in her native Connemara, Ireland and pays homage to the sonic tapestry woven by classic 4AD collective This Mortal Coil. In the short time since its release, the critically acclaimed record has seen a Best New Music accolade from Pitchfork and a glowing Guardian review, among other pieces of praise such as being named one of The FADER’s ‘30 coolest artists right now’, and Clash and Loud & Quiet’s best albums of 2025 so far.

In continued celebration of Luster, Maria Somerville will hit the road next Spring, with continued dates across the United States (including Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN), the UK, and her native Ireland (headline dates in Limerick, Dublin, and Galway). In addition, she has just been announced as support on two of My Bloody Valentine’s UK/EU tour dates this November (Manchester and Dublin), which fittingly follows her naming the band’s seminal record Loveless as her Pitchfork Perfect 10. This forthcoming run follows highly touted sold-out 2025 shows in New York and London amidst other buzzy headline dates across the UK/EU/US (with shows alongside Chanel Beads, james K, and others).

By the time Irish musician Maria Somerville started writing Luster, her landmark label debut for 4AD, she had lived away from her native Connemara for quite some time. Having grown up amongst the wild, mountainous terrain of Galway’s rural west coast, she later relocated to Dublin, where she patiently developed an atmospheric dream pop signature inspired by the landscape of her youth – a spellbinding soundworld of gusting ambient electronics, ethereal guitar strums, sparse percussion, and hushed lyrical vignettes. In 2019, this culminated in All My People, a self-released LP steeped in reverb, nostalgia and a yearning for home that won praise from discerning press and listeners alike.

It was upon returning to Connemara, in a house near where she was raised overlooking one of the country’s largest lakes, Lough Corrib, that work commenced on the songs that would eventually become Luster, an album that illuminates Somerville’s music anew, pushing it forward in both sound and spirit. Where All My People conveyed memories and melancholic longing with misty slowcore balladry, these 12 tracks show us an artist who’s more assured in the path her life has taken, and the person she’s become in the process. As she sings in ‘Trip’ – “I can see more clearly than I could before. I know now what’s true for me.”

Invigorated by her surroundings and emboldened by her community, Somerville found a renewed sense of creative energy upon returning to home soil. It provided “fertile ground” for free-flowing recording sessions in her small living room studio, where she stitched together demos that were then fleshed out with friends and collaborators, and later mixed by the renowned New York-based engineer Gabriel Schuman. Contributors included producers J. Colleran, Brendan Jenkinson and Diego Herrera (aka Suzanne Kraft), as well as Lankum’s Ian Lynch, whose uilleann pipe drones you can hear in ‘Violet’, and Margie Jean Lewis, whose violin bows reverberate through the ambient haze of ‘Flutter’. Sessions with musicians Henry Earnest and Finn Carraher McDonald (aka Nashpaints) helped “tie it all together”, while contributions from friends Roisin Berkley and Olan Monk enshrined the companionship they’ve shared since Somerville returned to Connemara.

Listeners have had a window into Somerville’s world every Monday and Tuesday morning since 2021 via her beloved Early Bird Show on NTS Radio, where her dawn chorus selections range from blissful ambient and shoegaze to traditional Irish folk songs. Since signing to 4AD that same year, Somerville has toured with her label mates Dry Cleaning, and released two covers for the label’s 40th anniversary celebrations – taking on Nancy Sinatra’s ‘Kinky Love’ and Air Miami’s ‘Sea Bird’. With the release of Luster, she has signaled the arrival of a new era that will see her play around the world in 2025 accompanied by a live band. Rest assured though, no matter where Somerville goes, she’ll take a piece of home with her – a living, breathing, timeless essence you can sense in every note, as clear as the air by the Corrib.

Maria Somerville – Luster
4AD 0755 | 25 April 2025

“There’s not a duff moment here – Luster isn’t just one of the best pop albums of the year, it’s the best thing we’ve heard from 4AD in years.” Boomkat

“Through a dense mist of shoegaze, post-punk, and ambient electronics, Somerville presents a dreamworld that is both mythic and real, a wild and ancient landscape in which her own figure is just barely perceptible.” Pitchfork (Best New Music, 8.5/10)

“[Luster] feels like a representation of the expansive beauty of solitude, and the beautiful chaos that can be found in quiet moments: a symphony of small ideas rendered in the colours of a sunset.” The Guardian ****

“One of Ireland’s most vital young voices.” Bandcamp

“A soulful take on post-punk, built out of austere guitar strums, ambient atmosphere and understated vocals that feel as if they could get lost in the breeze.” Crack Magazine

“Pop, trad and electronica are fused into gripping new contortions by the Connemara-born artist.” Irish Times