A four track EP of new music by Marianne Faithfull is to be released posthumously on April 12 for Record Store Day.
Released initially as a limited-edition vinyl EP, Burning Moonlight will be available worldwide as a digital EP on June 6. You can hear the title track below.
The four new recordings are inspired by, and have their creative roots in, Faithfull’s first two albums released simultaneously 60 years ago on April 15, 1965. The EP’s executive producer Andrew Batt explains; “It was so unusual to start your career this way, so we decided to bring the music full circle. One side of the EP would be inspired by her debut pop LP Marianne Faithfull while the flip would honour her folk roots on Come My Way.”
Side 1 is a tribute to Marianne’s pop past and opens with the poignant “Burning Moonlight”, which is released today. This moving ballad of resilience and acceptance was inspired by the opening line of her debut single “As Tears Go by’ (“It is the evening of the day”) and is followed by “Love Is” an uplifting homage to her ‘60s pop sound written with her grandson Oscar Dunbar.
Side 2 of the EP reconnects Marianne to her folk background with “Three Kinsmen Bold”, a traditional song learned from her father Glynn Faithfull who had been a formative influence on her folk recordings, and a new interpretation of “She Moved Thru’ The Fair”, a song Faithfull performed throughout her life, and which she first recorded in 1966.
“It’s a good time to look back,” she said after completing the project. “It helps me to remember all the things I’ve done. I can’t say I’m a particularly nostalgic person, but I am enjoying this period of reflection.”
The EP is produced by Head with Rob Ellis, Oscar Dunbar and Andrew Batt, and includes specially commissioned artwork by the acclaimed Australian artist David Frazer.
Head first worked with Faithfull in 2004 on the album Before The Poison. “I’m so happy we found a time when Marianne felt able to write and sing again” he says. “When she asked me to produce these songs, we were all aware that her health had made things difficult but, in true Marianne fashion, she persevered, and I think we were able to go in a new direction again – something she always tried to push herself to do throughout her long career.”