Elder Island

When Elder Island went into the studio to record the followup to their critically acclaimed 2021 album, Swimming Static, they were determined to “turn everything on its head”. The trio are celebrated for their brooding indie-electronica that draws on their Bristol roots, creating vastly detailed and immersive soundscapes. But Hello Baby Okay marks a new era for the band, fuelled by a longing for transcendence and euphoria. An effervescent counterpoint to the current times, their new music is threaded through with a liberated energy, lilting funk-pop guitars, danceable beats and arenewed sense of play. “We wanted the joy to shine through,” they say.

Elder Island’s Katy Sargent (vocals, cello), Luke Thornton (bass, beat-making) and David Havard (guitar, synths, programming) have spent the past decade building a dedicated fanbase on both sides of the Atlantic, with over 375 million streams worldwide. They’re firm festival favourites who’ve played at prestigious venues from London’s Roundhouse to New York’s Bowery Ballroom and who hold the unique ability to straddle both the live and club worlds: in 2022, they pricked the ears of superstar DJs like Solomun, who personally invited them to spin at his Printworks takeover. Across two studio albums and myriad EPs, they’ve crafted a genre-blurring sound world that draws on a sublime combination of strings, far-flung percussion, intricate loops and abstract lyrics.