SAM MORTON, the musical duo of singer, songwriter and acclaimed actress and director Samantha Morton, and music producer and co-songwriter Richard Russell, today announce details of their debut album. The album titled “Daffodils & Dirt” will be released on June 14 via XL Recordings/Beggars.
To celebrate the news, SAM MORTON also releases new single “Let’s Walk In The Night” today. The single is accompanied by a video directed by Samantha Morton. Filmed at the annual Goose Fair in Nottingham, it is the second music video Morton has directed for the project, following her video for (and starring role in) “Cry Without End” earlier this year.
Over twelve striking tracks, the duo builds a deeply personal musical world that feels intimate and delicate but also powerful and tough at the same time. The partly autobiographical songs allow Russell’s subdued soundscapes to serve as a lush backdrop for Morton’s mesmerizing vocals. They are joined by an ensemble of musical talent including Alabaster DePlume, Laura Groves, Jack Peñate and the added vocal input of Ali Campbell (on “Broxtowe Girl”).
Despite a lifelong love and commitment to music, SAM MORTON is Samantha Morton’s very first musical project. The collaboration came about after she appeared on Desert Island Discs in October 2020 and Russell happened to be listening. He was struck not only by her music choices (including a shared love of one song in particular: Molly Drake’s “I Remember”), but also by the way the music threaded through her lived experiences. They connected and kept in touch, exchanging ideas and sketches. Finally, months later, they met in the studio and entered into a period of spontaneous, intense and open-ended collaboration, a process that proved to be a profound and emotionally satisfying musical experience for both parties. Daffodils & Dirt, completed in 2023, is the fascinating result.
The album cover features an archive photo by acclaimed British-American photographer and visual artist Nick Waplington, who documented life on the Broxtowe Estate in Nottingham at the same time Morton was growing up there in the mid-1980s.
Tracklist ‘Daffodils & Dirt’
1. Highwood House
2. Hungerhill Road
3. Purple Yellow
4. The Little White Cloud That Cried 5. Kaleidoscope
6. Cry Without End
7. Broxtowe Girl
8. Let’s Walk In The Night
9. Greenstone
10. Double Dip Neon
11. The Shadow
12. Loved By God
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