Listen to Ellen Beth Abdi’s beguiling debut: Tenterhooks

Grown wise with the lessons of life in outer-city Manchester, absorbing the teachings of music, culture, loss and love, Ellen Beth Abdi’s releases her new single, Tenterhooks – OUT NOW. A beyond-years wisdom, musicianship and sense of creative adventure brought Abdi to wider attention in 2023, primarily as a touring and studio collaborator with A Certain Ratio, and now that focus is trained on her own, entrancing music.

While paths between electronic sounds, jazz, soul and deeper dives into diverse, global influences have crossed with the overwhelming need to congregate within earshot of pure, joyful melody repeatedly through time, Abdi’s self-assured and streetwise approach further stretches and breaks boundaries. Coupled with a voice of unfathomable depth and lyrics of often hard-wrought meaning, the release of Tenterhooks merely pushes the door ajar on a collection of waiting songs that gather the strands of a whole musical universe into one place.

Bringing youth to the table at the same time as compositional gravitas, Tenterhooks plays on the insecurities of modern relationships and the tightrope of etiquette in handling infatuation, lust and love in an age where what happens across 5G connections can make or break anyone’s heart.

She says of the track’s meaning: “This is a song about the violence of waiting for someone. It’s about the feeling you get after you send ‘that message’. Tenterhooks are the L-shaped hooks from which woollen cloth once hung in the mills of Northern England. Like that fabric, you are suspended. Your life and self-worth in the balance. Waiting for that person to reply....”

For upcoming announcements on live dates and other special events, listeners are urged to check for updates at www.ellenbethabdi.co.uk

Pushing way beyond genre interests and truly exploring the possibilities within her own and others’ talents, Abdi looks ahead to a soon-to-be-revealed PRS-funded collaboration between her The Hallé Orchestra and Youth Choir and Low Four Studio in addition to a busy releasing and performing period.

A sense of restless energy is met with a sense of endless possibility, with the artist counting in historic collaborations with jazz artist, Jamie Finlay, support slots with The Stone Roses and Ishmael Ensemble, plus guesting with New Order at Manchester International Festival over a short and intense career to date.