We're very excited to be able to say we've got a new album from Darren Hayman coming out in November, the first with Fika Recordings since 2013's album Bugbears. Since then he's put out the incredible Chants For Socialists (a stunning album taking inspiration and words from William Morris' pamphlet of the same name) and unveiled a long running project based around Thankful Villages.
Back to the LP in question! It is a beautifully delicate and touchingly honest album simply titled Florence after the city in which it was created. This is his very first purely solo album, featuring no other musicians. It was written and recorded between Christmas and New Year at the end of 2014 in the Firenze flat belonging to Elizabeth Morris (Allo Darlin’) and Ola Innset (Making Marks). Continuing his habit of making incisive, observational and beautiful albums, with Florence Hayman has taken a back-to-basics approach, eschewing his recent collaborative, conceptual approaches for a humble and modest solo effort, entirely recorded and performed in the Italian apparetemento of his hosts.
We'll be putting this out on vinyl and download at the start of November, but to whet your appetite, here's the opening track from Florence, Nuns Run The Apothecary, supposedly Darren's response to Allo Darlin's track Darren!.