In the summer of 2020, she moved to the west of Ireland and began working on the songs that would eventually become her ambitious second album 'Protector'. “Getting up every day before sunrise, I would take my guitar to a place where no-one could hear me and write songs in the magic hour before the world wakes up.” She took her time there, looking for signs in the ancient woodland and the moonlike landscapes of the Burren of County Clare, seeking answers in nature and memory.
'Protector', released this autumn via Partisan Records, presents a thrilling emotional and sonic landscape, Frances’ powerful voice lighting a path through intricate arrangements and psychedelic flourishes that feel somehow familiar and yet entirely new. While Protector exists in the same aesthetic space as her critically-acclaimed 2020 debut 'Land Of No Junction', the vision here is more refined, her growing confidence as a songwriter easily apparent, and with each twist and turn, more details surface, carrying the music to new heights.
With 'Protector', she delivers a glowing act of restoration. Informed by universal pain as well as the power of connection, these songs find their magic away from city streets, listening instead to the hum of life that reverberates through the natural world. They trap glimpses of light and then crystallize them into new modes of being.
Recommended for fans of: Melanie de Biasio, Cate Le Bon, Lael Neale and Aldous Harding.