On the eponymously titled final song of her debut album Land of No Junction, Irish songwriter Aoife Nessa Frances (pronounced Ee-fa) sings “Take me to the land of no junction/Before it fades away/Where the roads can never cross/But go their own way.” It is this search that lies at the heart of the new album (January 17th) recalling journeys towards an ever shifting centre – a centre that cannot hold – where maps are constantly being rewritten.
“The album title is a result of a mishearing. Cian Nugent [Aoife’s musical collaborator and co-producer] was telling me about childhood trips he made to Llandudno in Wales, passing through a station called Llandudno Junction,” reveals Frances. “Land of No Junction later became a place in itself. A liminal space – a dark vast landscape to visit in dreams… A place of waiting where I could sit with uncertainty and accept it. Rejecting the distinct and welcoming the uncertain and the unknown.”
Written over several years, the songs traverse and inhabit this indeterminate landscape: the beginnings of love, moments of loss, discovery, fragility and strength, all intermingle and interact. New single “Here in the Dark” flows at a hypnotic, languid pace, with Mellotron arrangements accenting Frances’ throaty delivery. The video is comprised of footage from the 1939 New York World’s Fair parade (found by Ralph Sheridan and expertly edited by Laura Briggs) and shots of Frances taken by Anna McCarthy and Aila Harryson Lorigan.
Take a watch below…
“Here in the Dark is a song about forgiveness and the fragility of love…. Making mistakes and owning up to them.” Reveals Aoife.
Over the course of Land Of No Junction, nostalgia and newness ebb and flow. Sounds simmer up in the background of the songs, and are washed over by changes both summoned and not. It shows us a reckoning to be found in flux, and an ongoing acceptance of the inexplicable.
Album tracklisting below…
- Geranium
- Blow Up
- Here In The Dark
- A Long Dress
- Less Is More
- Libra
- In The End
- Heartbreak Junction
- Land Of No Junction
