Photo: Nikita Laganovskis

With nothing but magnificent releases under her belt, it’s no wonder that we’re always excited to hear new music from Poppy Ackroyd. The tremendously talented multi-instrumentalist and composer is back with an intimate new album titled Liminal. Releasing on June 5th through One Little Independent Records, it sees her returning to the violin for the first time since 2019’s Feathers, in addition to also playing the piano. “Melody, harmony, rhythm and texture are all extracted from the physical bodies of the instruments themselves”, describes the press relese, “from bowed and plucked strings to percussive elements.”

Liminal arrives following a period of upheaval and transition. “In the last three years everyone I loved most in the world needed me, all at once,” she explains. “There has been new life and death, heartbreak and many other things that are not my stories to tell. I have also moved across the country to a part of the world I have never lived in before.”

Despite being born out of some turbulent chapters in her life, the album carries an undercurrent of steady determination, and Ackroyd later found herself listening to the album and being surprised by a lightness she hadn’t felt in the studio. “I had such a chaotic few years, but the only way to cope was to allow things to be messy,” she reflects. “Embracing the messy and imperfect but still getting things done. I decided to apply this approach to my music making and I found that I still maintain the same attention to detail but without the pressure, and I fell in love with making music again in a whole new way.”

Ahead of the album’s release, Ackroyd has shared the beautiful and wholly enveloping ‘The Unknown’. The single comes paired with an accompanying video made by Tom Newell. Watch it below.