Cordelia Gartside shares Twin Peaks-inspired ‘laura palmer’ + announces debut EP

Alt-rock newcomer Cordelia Gartside today announces her debut EP pattern repeating, out 13th November via state51 Distribution and shares new single 'laura palmer'. Following last month’s invigorating EP teaser, 'good', Gartside has also announced an EP launch show at The Shacklewell Arms in London on 25th November.

Taking its title from the high-school student at the centre of Twin Peaks, 'laura palmer' is about being wanted but not understood. Gartside moves between Laura and the first person, exploring what is hidden beneath the image others create of her.

The song turns on a pivotal lyrical transformation: "annihilate her" becomes "illuminate her". That movement from destruction towards recognition is mirrored in an arrangement that patiently builds through an atmosphere of unease, accumulating pressure until Gartside drives the final phrase to the top of her range and the song finally lets go. At is peak, "illuminate her" becomes less an observation than a call to action - a demand that she be seen.

Gartside explains:

"two years ago, i started watching twin peaks with a friend. the week before Lynch died we saw 'fire walk with me' at an old cinema. in a peeling room with red velvet curtains i felt it change my life in real time. i had to be very still and quiet for a few days, i felt a lot and wrote a lot, then i wrote this song. i'd never written about a fictional character before, but i'm not sure laura palmer is a fictional character. she's very real to me."

Recorded largely live with Gartside’s band in a handful of takes, the EP was later expanded with vocals and overdubs captured across bedrooms, friends’ living rooms and rehearsal studios.

Gartside's visual world operates as an extension of that sound. Having grown up without a television, she discovered artists including Tom Waits, Pink Floyd and Tori Amos through YouTube fan edits - feeding into a visual language shaped by old-internet oddities, degraded digital imagery, handicam and CCTV footage, obscured faces and empty spaces.

Together, the music and images evoke anemoia - nostalgia for a time or place that never existed - continually blurring what is real, remembered or constructed. As Gartside puts it: "i wanted to make the music sound like dreams feel and look like itself."

Across only a handful of releases, Gartside has developed a form of alternative rock that pairs psychologically exposed writing with post-rock intensity, combining stark intimacy and uneasy atmosphere with distorted guitars and cathartic vocals; reference points include Fiona Apple, Mitski and Radiohead.

Previous singles 'hospital corners' and 'x ray' both received support from Emily Pilbeam on BBC 6 Music's Introducing Mixtape, with 'x ray' also set to appear on the EP. Introducing the track, Pilbeam said: "Cordelia’s voice is just wild. The power in this song is truly something else." Gartside also recorded a live session for BBC Introducing The South that left host Melita Dennett "speechless."

Following sold-out headline shows at London venues The Lexington and The George Tavern, her 2026 live run has included appearances at Liverpool Sound City, The Great Escape and Brighton Psych Fest, alongside shows with Little Grandad, Bug Teeth, Jonique, Lynnie Snow, Oslo Twins and Speedial.

Cordelia Gartside's debut EP pattern repeating is out 13th November via state51 Distribution. New single 'laura palmer' is out now.

LIVE DATES

Tickets

• 15 October - Green Door Store, Brighton (supporting M. Woodroe)
• 23 October - Left Of The Dial Festival, Rotterdam
• 24 October - Left Of The Dial Festival, Rotterdam
• 25 November - Shacklewell Arms, London (EP Launch Show)

pattern repeating - track list

1. pattern repeating

2. x ray

3. good

4. what the heart wants

5. laura palmer