Natalie Wildgoose

Scouring for pianos in remote corners of the Yorkshire Dales, Natalie Wildgoose finds them in Victorian mills, grade II listed village halls and isolated chapels, letting the spaces themselves shape the music.

Carrying the rarefied qualities of an unearthed archive recording, her music seeks to slow down the frantic pace of modern life; uncovering the past, and reconnecting with the environments of the places and communities that hold her.

Recording first on piano, as before, new EP Rural Hours, which took a year to make, also sees Natalie return to the richness of a folk ensemble. Never content to simply shack up in a recording studio however – with backing from the PRS for Women fund – she brought musicians Chris Brain and Owen
Spafford to a bothy high up in an isolated part of the Yorkshire Dales, two hours walk from the nearest village and without heating or electricity. Playing by candlelight, songs inspired by life and loss in North Yorkshire, by Emily Dickinson’s letters, or the Sibylline oracle of Ancient Greece play against the crackle of the fire and the wild winds blowing outside.

With multiple sold-out London headlines to her name, Broadside Hacks-promoted shows, a tour with Jake Xerxes Fussell, supports for Lily Lyons, William Tyler and Avice Caro, and festival slots at Green Man, Deer Shed and The Great Escape.