Maria Somerville

Maria Somerville draws on folk forms alongside post-punk, traditional Irish motifs, starry eyed pop and hypnotic drones to create wholly original music that is borne of her roots in Connemara in the West of Ireland.

She signed to 4AD in 2020 following her breakthrough 2019 debut All My People, releasing two covers as part of their 40th anniversary Bills & Aches & Blues compilation, and supporting label-mates Dry Cleaning on their EU tour.

Her first 4AD release, Luster, arrived in 2025. Returning to Connemara after a long stint in Dublin, Somerville began to work on the songs that would eventually become Luster, an album that illuminates her music anew, pushing it forward in both sound and spirit. Where All My People conveyed memories and melancholic longing with misty slowcore balladry, these 12 tracks show us an artist who’s more assured in the path her life has taken, and the person she’s become in the process. The album was initially recorded in her small living room studio, where she stitched together demos that were then fleshed out with friends and collaborators, and later mixed by renowned New York-based engineer Gabriel Schuman. Contributors included producers J.Colleran, Brendan Jenkinson and Diego Herrera AKA Suzanne Kraft, as well as Lankum’s Ian Lynch, whose uilleann pipe drones you can hear in ‘Violet’, and Margie Jean Lewis, whose violin bows reverberate through the ambient haze of ‘Flutter’. Sessions with musicians Henry Earnest and Finn Carraher McDonald (aka Nashpaints) helped “tie it all together”, while contributions from friends Roisin Berkley and Olan Monk enshrined the companionship they’ve shared since Somerville returned to Connemara.

As well as her work as a solo musician, Maria has contributed to Richard Russel’s Everything Is Recorded project, collaborated with Olan Monk and Rip Swirl, and remixed tracks by Westerman and Bing & Ruth, and is part of the elusive Dublin collective Princ€ss. Her ‘Early Bird’ Breakfast show on NTS has also proven her to be a talented and much loved selector – as recent DJ slots with Croatian Amor attest.

“a deft and sweeping survey of all that “dream pop” can encompass—drawing lines from Mazzy Star to My Bloody Valentine to Broadcast to Julianna Barwick, settling comfortably alongside the masterpieces of the canon.” – Pitchfork

“a representation of the expansive beauty of solitude, and the beautiful chaos that can be found in quiet moments: a symphony of small ideas rendered in the colours of a sunset.” – The Guardian

“Somerville’s musicality runs deep—she writes melodies that stick with you and arrangements that lead to surprising places. The gorgeous “Luster” shows what other acts in the crowded dream-pop field are missing.” – The Wall Street Journal

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