Laura Marling is set to appear at Manchester’s Albert Hall just days after her new album Semper Femina is released.
Her sixth album in a little over nine years, Semper Femina is released on 10 May through Laura Marling’s own label More Alarming Records, having been recorded in LA in late 2015 and produced alongside US producer Blake Mills.
Semper Femina was largely written out on the road, following the release of Laura’s acclaimed album, Short Movie, in Spring 2015. Its loose lyrical thread strings together her keen, freshly observed take on womanhood, and what Laura describes as a particularly ‘masculine time in her life’. She explains, “I started out writing Semper Femina as if a man was writing about a woman, and then I thought; “it’s not a man, it’s me” I don’t need to pretend it’s a man to justify the intimacy, or the way I’m looking and feeling about women. It’s me looking specifically at women and feeling great empathy towards them, and by proxy, towards myself”.
Semper Femina follows the success of Laura’s recent Podcast series, Reversal of the Muse. As an exploration of femininity in creativity, the collaborative project opened up an important conversation around whether the lack of feminine presence in the studio environment would ultimately make any difference at all to the creative outcome. With no ulterior motives, nor any pre-conceived expectations, Reveral of the Muse was as much about the conversation created than expecting a conclusive answer. Guests included HAIM, Karen Elson, Vanessa Parr, Dolly Parton, Shura, and Emmylou Harris.
Laura Marling performs at Manchester’s Albert Hall on 12 March 2017.
