Minneapolis-born, Scotland-based singer-songwriter Faith Eliott grew up in the United States before moving to Scotland aged 13. Their first and most formative creative output was poetry. It was after becoming lodged in the Edinburgh DIY music scene, singing backing vocals in various bands and performing in folk pubs, that they began to develop into a songwriter. Albeit still with a poetic flourish – stripped-back and heavily lyric-driven. Their debut solo EP Insects was released on Song, By Toad Records in 2016, followed by the debut solo album Impossible Bodies in 2019, via Faith’s own label OK Pal Records, set-up in collaboration with fellow Edinburgh musician and friend Hailey Beavis. an ode of unrequited love from a hagfish to a giant isopod is their latest single, out on Lost Map records. It’s the second taste of the spellbinding music to be discovered on their forthcoming new album dryas, that is set for release on May 30, 2025.

What They Say: “A classic case of an anxious/avoidant attachment relationship dynamic. Hagfish are soft and spineless. They have four hearts and exude tremendous amounts of slime when threatened. They burrow into carcasses to devour them from the inside with their retractable dental plates. The isopod is like a giant sea-woodlouse. They live very solitary lives. They have a tough, armoured exoskeleton and can go years without eating. In this song, the anxiously attached hagfish sacrifices its boundaries to pine with unhinged abandon for the emotionally unavailable, avoidant isopod.“

The Album

Recorded during two week-long sessions in Perthshire at community space The Big Shed, Faith’s expansive and ambitious new album dryas was made in close collaboration with longtime creative foil Robyn Dawson, who produced, engineered and arranged the record as well as contributed string parts. “Robyn and I have been collaborating for many years in a live setting, building a lot of shorthand and shared sensibilities,” says Faith “A few years back, when she mentioned pursuing engineering and production, I suggested we make an album together. As luck would have it, she was keen!”
Also featuring Signy Jakobsdottir on percussion, Susan Bear on synths and bass, trumpet by Ali Hendry, alto recorders by Pual Northcott and piano by Katarzyna Wiktorski, dryas is a triumph of storytelling and world-building. Formed of everything from orchestral elements to electronic textures and found sounds, it’s full of musical landscapes as fascinating as the lyrical organisms that populate them. Taking its title from an arctic plant which thrived during periods of extreme cooling near the end of the last ice age (ancient history and archaeology are among Faith’s many passions), dryas is a record about resilience, reassurance and sweet release. It feels almost like a kind of sonic menagerie, full of collected intellectual curio, emotions, memories, and strange animal and spirit creatures. Including at least one bear high on hallucinogenic honey. 
What They Say: “For me, the imagery of these resilient flowers flourishing in inhospitable landscapes serves to represent a lot of the feelings-themes I explore on the album, trying to live with more adaptability, letting go of cynicism and shame. I hope it’s fun to listen to and presents little avenues of curiosity. Often, I use songwriting as a vehicle to research something I’m interested in. A finished song will present itself as a mini-exhibition of the vocabulary and ideas I gathered while processing new information. Pleistocene volcanos (‘laacher see 13000bce’), apocryphal late-Renaissance monsters lurking in the aisles of ASDA (‘thys creatur’), hagfish and mythological bears. Fun stuff! There’s also a lot in there about the internet. Videos of animals on the internet seem to come up a lot.”

dryas will be out on May 30, via Lost Map . Look Here for more information on Faith Elliott.