Metropolis Music Presents: Bat For Lashes + MUI ZYU

Named after her daughter Delphi, born in California in the locked-down summer of 2020, ‘The Dream of Delphi’ finds Khan reflecting on early motherhood in her most personal album to date. The new single is accompanied by a stunning video shot earlier this winter in the English countryside, produced in collaboration with creative director and choreographer Alexandra Green and directed by Freddie Leyden. The official video will form the first chapter of a yet-to-be-announced longform album film, with more information to be revealed soon.

WATCH ‘THE DREAM OF DELPHI’ CHAPTER ONE HERE

Part pagan invocation, part celestial synth epic, new single and album opener ‘The Dream of Delphi’ marks a stunning return and true-to-form reinvention from Khan. Feeling ancient and astral but at the same time novel and exciting. The album invites the listener through a journey of devotional love songs about the spirituality, ancestry and folklore; but also the mundane, selfless and tender aspects of child rearing that all mothers can attest to.

Speaking on the track, Natasha adds:

“This is the manifesto of the album. It’s like a spell being cast. It’s the conjuring, the manifestation, the drawing-down of Delphi from the ether. This is me calling on her soul. It’s about going up into the stars and down into the underworld simultaneously,  how celestials and deep guttural sounds can come together, how that reflects the journey I went on. It’s about what happens when you’re stretched physically, mentally, even vaginally! I think it’s just humbled me, too, becoming a mother. It’s  made me feel more vulnerable than I’ve ever felt before. But I feel more human, more embodied. I can’t escape life by making beautiful things as much as I did. But there’s sort of a beauty to my mortality now.”

“Motherhood I thought would take me away from my art, but it opened up this massive world,” continues Natasha Khan, six albums into a career of vivid creative shifts, examining female archetypes in conceptually rich, musically rewarding explorations – but none of them as personal, raw or vulnerably powerful an experience as ‘The Dream Of Delphi’.

Constantly searching for untapped places in herself to make work, Khan suddenly found an extra, fleshy, fertile, raw layer after giving birth to her daughter in the Covid lockdown summer of 2020 –  snatching moments in pregnancy and early motherhood to improvise and write, embracing gut instinct and emotional directness, then eventually self-producing what could be her boldest rebirth so far. The Dream Of Delphi is certainly her most intuitive and most deeply felt record, an ambitious, tender suite of abstract, almost spiritual songs – Natasha calls them her “song poems” – alongside haunting instrumentals that express the ineffable.

In The Dream of Delphi, we meet the Motherwitch: the name Khan gives to the armour she puts on when she is exploring the depths and peaks of herself in her new capacity as a parent and protector. “I’ve turned the mother in me into this more potent, heightened archetype of the aspects of myself that are a mother. [The Motherwitch] helps me be able to take something so vulnerable and personal out into the world – I felt I couldn’t just do it as Natasha, because it’s so, so deep.”

Moments of quiet domesticity sit amongst flashes of existential wonder in these ten spiralling compositions. Lyrics about the break-up of Natasha’s relationship with Delphi’s father interweave with the place of the mother in the never-ending cycle of life, death and rebirth. Ideas and sounds both ancient and modern also mesh mesmerisingly together, pianos, bass flutes and harps blending with organs, mellotrons and the whirling sound patterns of synthesisers, inspired by her love of female and trans artists like Delia Derbyshire, Constance Demby and Beverly Glenn Copeland, and her longstanding interests in ambient and orchestral film soundtracks.

After teasing new music and live staging last year as part of the Christine & The Queens curated Meltdown Festival at the Southbank Centre, Bat For Lashes will take to the stage again this summer for her first run of headline concerts for five years with a highly conceptual show that combines movement and elements of performance art alongside her virtuosic vocal performance and live band.

Last year Bat For Lashes released ‘Motherwitch’, a hand-illustrated reimagining of Tarot using multiple original female archetypes, visual symbols and an abstract spiritualist painters’ colour palette across 40 cards to provide a storyteller’s guide into the mysteries and beauty of our own internal landscapes. The Motherwitch oracle deck lands somewhere between Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt’s ‘Oblique Strategies’ and the Wild Unknown Tarot Deck, while the deck also stands alone as a bespoke art object in and of itself. The 40 cards were entirely designed and conceived by Khan, creating an oracle deck for use as a tool for the creative process and also as a conduit to the subconscious realms.

Natasha Khan is primarily a musician, singer and songwriter and has been a professional recording artist under the moniker “Bat For Lashes” for the past 17 years. She has recently returned to the UK after 6 years in California with her 3 year old daughter Delphi. She is a multi-disciplinary artist working not only in music, but also across practices in the visual arts and film. Khan has recorded six studio albums, as well as soundtracks for film, podcasts and television over the course of her career. The singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, visual artist and director has been praised by critics and audiences worldwide, scoring 5 top 15 UK albums and playing live shows at Coachella, Glastonbury, Latitude and Laneway amongst others. Her musical works have been included in soundtracks for ‘The Twilight Saga’, ‘The Hunger Games’ and campaigns for Thierry Mugler, Chanel, Gucci and Miu Miu. Khan’s songs have been described as distinctively haunting, darkly fantastical and ripe with magic realism, which has garnered three Mercury Prize nominations, three BRIT Awards nominations and two Ivor Novello wins, for Song of the Year and Best Soundtrack in 2019. She has co-directed a majority of her 20 plus music videos, and premiered a short film she wrote and directed at TriBeCa film festival in 2016, all the while keeping up with her visual art practice.

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Book online: Pre-show dining can be booked online as an add-on when purchasing tickets for selected events. You will be purchasing a ticket to guarantee your meal before the show.
Please note you must be a ticket holder to the show to book pre-show dining.

Already booked your tickets? If you’ve already booked tickets for a show and would like to add dining, please contact Box Office: boxoffice@dlwp.com

On the night: If you have pre-booked please come to the bar to order from the gig menu and sit at one of the reserved tables.

Please be aware that we operate no re-entry for gigs. This means that once you have entered the building, you cannot go out and re-enter. This policy is in line with other major music venues across the UK and put in place on police advice. No re-entry is clearly signposted as you come through security on the front door.
There is a fenced-off area on the terrace for people who go out to smoke or vape.

There are plenty of welcoming and good value B&Bs & boutique hotels in Bexhill. The De La Warr Pavilion regularly uses the following:

• Seapray Rooms
• The Driftwood
• The Cooden Beach Hotel
• Coast B & B
• Buenos Aires
• Dunselma
• De La Warr View (Holiday Flat)

• By Rail
  Direct trains go from London Victoria, Brighton and Ashford to Bexhill.
  There are also trains from London Charing Cross, changing at St. Leonards Warrior Square and from London Bridge or Charing Cross going to Battle. Battle is only a short taxi journey away (15 mins approx).
  Visit www.nationalrail.co.uk for up-to-date train travel information.
• Taxis
  Town Taxis:  01424 211 511
  Parkhurst Taxis:  01424 733 456
• By Car
  If driving from the London area:
  Take the M25, then A21 to Hastings. Turn off at John‘s Cross and follow the signs to Bexhill.
  OR
  Take the A22 to Eastbourne, go across the Bishop roundabout to the A271 and follow the signs to Bexhill and the seafront. The De La Warr Pavilion is on the Marina.
  From the Brighton area:
  Follow the A27 out of Brighton until you arrive in Bexhill On Sea.
• Parking
  Please be aware the Rother District car park outside the De La Warr Pavilion operates paid parking until 7pm. After this time parking is free.

Within the limits of this Grade One listed building, the De La Warr Pavilion strives to be fully accessible with a range of facilities to support your visit.

If you have specific access needs for a daytime visit or for a bookable event, please email customerservice@dlwp.com or call 01424 229111

Current facilities are:

• Assistance Dogs are permitted into the building (not in the carpeted area of the Café Bar)
• Ramped access at the front of the building
• A low counter at the Box Office and  Information Desk
• Disabled toilets on two floors
• A lift to all floors
• Accessible galleries on both floors
• An accessible Café
• Spaces for wheelchairs in the auditorium for seated events – please note that currently our balcony seating is not accessible for wheelchairs/walkers.
• Ramped access in the auditorium for events during the day
• Ramped access into the Studio
• Two travel wheelchairs are available for use at the De La Warr Pavilion. To reserve, please call our box office and information desk on (01424) 229111 or ask a member of staff on arrival. The chairs are provided on a first come, first served basis and are intended for use inside the Pavilion. Please contact us for more information.

Facilities for blind or visually-impaired

• Large print season brochures

Facilities for the hard-of-hearing

• An T-Switch induction loop in some areas of the auditorium (please indicate when booking as this facility is not available on the balcony)
• British Sign Language interpretation tours of the building and exhibitions are available on request.