When going on a sonic journey into the wild, who better to chaperone than former Wild Beasts frontman , Hayden Thorpe . Six years after the disbandment of the acclaimed art-rock quartet, the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist has since firmly established himself as a solo artist, thanks to the stark balladry of ‘Diviner’ and the synth-soaked majesty of ‘Moondust For My Diamond’ . Now back with his third solo album Ness, an adaptation of author Robert Macfarlane’s book of the same name , Hayden has successfully crafted his most magical and ambitious project yet.
At the heart of both Robert’s book and Hayden’s album is Orford Ness, a ten-mile-long beach on the coast of Suffolk. Once you dig into the history of the place, it is easy to see why these artists would’ve been uniquely drawn to such a place. A former Ministry of Defence weapons development site during both World Wars and the Cold War, where the country’s nuclear arsenal was previously built and tested, Orford Ness was bought by the National Trust in 1993 and has since been transformed into a coastal nature reserve.
A place where the dark history of humanity and the resplendence of the natural world collide – under today’s growing threats of increasing political tension and devastating climate change effects no less – Ness feels a powerfully fitting subject matter in 2024. While the album may ultimately reside under Hayden’s name, this project is one of massive collaboration. Using Ro.