Jesca Hoop’s new AA single Song for a Bygone Era / Waking Andreas (grouped together under the name Stonechild Afterbirth) serve as a postscript to her much heralded fifth album STONECHILD released earlier this year via Memphis Industries. Jesca describes the songs as follows:
“As I grow and travel on through life so do the those that I hold dear. It is not easy to let go of people places and things as life inevitably moves us on.. especially if safety and sacred was found. Song For A Bygone Era is dedicated to my dear old friends and teachers ,Tony Berg, Blake Mills and Shawn Everett with whom I made my first four records xx
Waking Andreas refers to the fault line that runs through California. If you have ever loved you have likely been troubled by love. Perhaps shaken to your core. I’m a California girl. I love deeply. The trouble for me comes in no small tremor.”
Jesca has been touring throughout 2019 including a magnificent performance at the Barbican in October and festival highlight slot at Green Man in August. Jesca continues her US tour through to the end of November.
Produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Aldous Harding, This Is The Kit), recent album STONECHILD (and these two new songs) was recorded in Hoop’s long time home Manchester – a first, given previously she’s ventured back to her native California to record. Parish’s minimal and purist approach helped clarify Hoop in her ideas subtly yet effectively realigning her sound. The simplified arrangements draw focus to the fundamental sophistication of the songs.
The album title was settled after a trip to a Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum, where the Stonechild is a sad, compelling display of an unborn foetus carried by a woman for over 30 years. “They become a hard ball of bones, a rock. Phonetically, it's a beautiful sounding word - hard and soft – but also, I am taken by the idea of carrying something for a long time, perhaps in secret and then giving it up. I hope I have made an album of substance. There is meat on the bone”
