Jealous of the Birds – the acclaimed musical moniker of Northern Ireland-based singer-songwriter Naomi Hamilton – has announced her eagerly awaited new album, Hinterland, due via Canvasback/Atlantic on May 19.
Produced, engineered and mixed by Declan Legge, the album is heralded by the first single, ‘Morse Code,’ available now at all DSPs and streaming services.
“We often find ourselves navigating what exactly our place is in the world,” says Naomi Hamilton, “especially in our twenties and thirties. Suddenly things get serious and there’s a simmering pressure to figure things out. ‘Morse Code’ taps into that and acts as a gentle encouragement that the only thing that really matters is the fact you’re alive, so try not to overthink it and just live as best you can.”
She continues of the album: “Hinterland is an old Germanic word dating back to the 19th Century that literally translates to ‘behind land,’” says Hamilton. “It conjures up images of remote tundras and desolate places beyond the boundaries of what is known and explored. The past two or three years of pandemic and unrest have occupied a very liminal space for me personally, but also for the industry I work in, and more significantly for our collective humanity and planet. We are grappling with unknowns and trying to attribute meaning and action as best we can.
“This record is one person weighing up the ways in which we’re isolated from one another, with the ways we are deeply connected in perilous times. How we hold the capacity not only to be repelled by the chaos of civilization towards the peace of a hinterland, but also to be drawn out of the remoteness of our mental landscapes toward a renewed sense of belonging.”
Hinterland:
- Beginner’s Luck
- Borderwalker
- Cynic’s Song
- Morse Code
- Out of Orbit
- Inside/Outside
- A Shárú
- Quiet Blues
- Not Today
- Ursa Minor
