Emerging artist ELDR unveils her second EP ‘HÖLY STRANGER’ alongside new single‘Weak Potion’, out today

After spending the last few months enticing us with her captivating new singles 'Spinning Tops' and 'Friends', emerging artist & award-winning composer ELDR has now delivered her highly-anticipated new EP 'HÖLY STRANGER', showcased by the atmospheric new offering 'Weak Potion'.

Following her critically-praised debut EP 'Defender' in 2019, which also received the PRS Women Make Music fund, 'HÖLY STRANGER' looks to continue the broad and ethereal guise she first introduced herself with. Channelling her raw and adventurous approach to production and songwriting, her newest collection looks to add the next vibrant chapter in her ever-growing catalogue, cementing her as one of the more exciting new names emerging right now.

Speaking about the new EP, she said, "HÖLY STRANGER is in many ways a spiritual record, dealing with love, grief, mental demons and the perils of devotion. The songs emerged from a period of darkness in my life where I found myself deeply in love with a coercive, religious fundamentalist, prone to psychotic rages who believed it was the end of the world. This record is about the fragility that each of us quietly carries, and the desire to rise above self-destructive tendencies. Fundamentally, it's a call to realise your power and find your own truth."

Serving as the EP's opening track, 'Weak Potion' perfectly illustrates the bold and mesmerising direction ELDR explores on this new release. With its dense and atmospheric textures dancing around her own otherworldly vocals throughout, she sets an incredibly vivid tone that matches the explorative ideals we have already heard from her in the lead up to this new collection.

'HÖLY STRANGER' Track listing:

1. Weak Potion

2. Spinning Tops

3. Friends

4. Headstone

As a scholar from the National Film & Television School, ELDR has since gone on to compose award-winning scores and soundtracks for the likes of BBC, Sky Arts, BFI, and Film4, and recently the soundtrack for Poly Styrene: I AM A CLICHÉ, which just won 'Best Documentary' at the British Independent Film Awards and the 'Raindance Discovery Award', as well as being nominated for a Scottish BAFTA.

After beginning with her first project White Russia, she found herself in the midst of the commercial music machine. She found the experience confined and restrictive, unable to truly express herself and forced her to take a step back into pursuit of something more organic. This is when she formed ELDR, a broad and euphoric exercise that sees her channel the energy of acts such as PJ Harvey, Kate Bush, Daughter and Bjork, while also giving her work a more cinematic approach.

ELDR is a representation of her most honest and untethered self. Emerging from an occultist background, which went on to lead her down the darkest paths of organised religion, she has since rejected much of those beliefs but still finds artistic inspiration in their rituals. These principle guides in her life have allowed her to see that there are always two sides to all of us, both in darkness and in light, forming the basis of what she wanted the ELDR project to focus on; a vehicle to promote self-acceptance and empowerment.

After releasing her debut EP 'Defender' in 2019, she gave birth to her first child. Finding herself in lockdown with a newborn, unable to perform live, she began visually recording her experiences of motherhood. With many commenting that family and a career in the music industry are incompatible, it became a necessity to show those that this wasn’t the case, and so ELDR:TV was born, a DIY reality series about music making and motherhood.

ELDR is now more than just her latest guise, it is the truest interpretation of who she really is. No longer dealing with the insecurities and pain of her past, she has a renewed and more positive vision, sharing an honest and authentic look at herself and the world through her captivating music.