Gordi Releases Collaborative EP with SOAK 'Lunch at Dune'

Lauded Australian singer-songwriter Gordi - the recording moniker of Sophie Payten - shares a new EP Lunch at Dune. The EP revolves around lead single “Lunch At Dune,” a special collaboration project with SOAK, the Mercury-prize nominated Northern Irish folk musician, aka Bridie Monds-Watson. In celebration of the EP’s release, the duo has shared a special live version filmed from The Durhamstown Castle in Ireland of the project’s title track.

The pair met up in Dublin and amongst other local explorations, the duo recorded and filmed a live version in the kitchen of a castle in Bohermeen, outside Dublin. Videographers Ashleigh Pepper and Madeleine Purdy captured the experimental stripped back re-work, which Gordi and SOAK have shared.

The EP follows the recent announcement of two intimate pop-up shows Stateside - NYC at Public Records last night and in LA at the quirky marionette puppet theater, Bob Baker. Her Sydney and Melbourne shows last week quickly sold out, and her London appearance at the heritage listed Old Church at Stoke Newington at the end of this month is also sold out.

Having earned global attention for her music since her debut album, Reservoir, in 2017, Gordi has learned the hard way of the need to be malleable, to form and reform in response to her environment and circumstances and self, "it's awful and really beautiful." The pandemic – a moment where we all lost control of our reliable structures and were instead completely shaped by our surroundings – prompted her to think about "What are the moments where you really transform in your life? And I think grief is one of those things. Love is one of those things. Queerness is one of those things. And so is the going into the next phase of life."

Those factors converge on the new song, a standout early hint of the new chapter for Gordi, a track. At a cafe in London in early 2020, "the whole world was burning down" and so too was her interior life. The metaphorical internal burning down was mirrored by the crumbling of the world around her.

“I was sitting at the kitchen table of an Airbnb in East London in the last week of February in 2020. It was cold and dark outside, and the streets were unnervingly silent. Refreshing my Twitter feed every 2 minutes to see which country had closed its borders, I wondered if I’d be able to get home, as the panic around the pandemic was swirling. I sat in the crippling uncertainty for a minute, and began to write. The next day I finished what became “Lunch at Dune” in a small studio in Camden in the northern part of London.”

Gordi had been a fan of SOAK for some time and, after seeing them perform in New York, knew they'd provide the missing piece “Lunch at Dune” needed. It's a gift of a song, and the artists' voices wrap around one another in a sonic world that builds and grows, rises up and spreads out like a protective forcefield around only those who matter. They sound both wounded and healing at once, lost and certain.

Through mutual friends, many years later, Bridie and Gordi became internet pen pals. The recording was finished a while after that London trip – this time across the Atlantic in Durham, North Carolina. Gordi enlisted her friend and previous collaborator Brad Cook (Snail Mail, Bon Iver, Waxahatchee) to co-produce “Lunch At Dune.” Gordi and Cook first met while recording at April Base in Wisconsin, and later collaborated together as part of Big Red Machine at Eaux Claires Festival and PEOPLE Festival in Berlin.

Mixed by Philip Weinrobe (Big Thief, Florist, Nick Murphy, Adrienne Lenker) “Lunch At Dune” sees the artists' voices wrap around one another in a sonic trance that builds and expands, rises up and diverges out like a protective forcefield around only those who matter. These properties are spun in interesting lights on the two reworked versions of the song on the EP.

Woven into the future-focused act of reexamining and rebuilding is a sense of optimism. Maybe it's a holistic ease, the responsibilities that working as a doctor have brought on – something she explored when returning to the frontline late in the pandemic. Whether it’s resolution or resignation, it has brought out a more extraverted artistic self in the singer-songwriter.

"There is something in the next phase of what I’m making that feels much more celebratory than I think I've ever really explored before. It's found me so content in exactly who I am, which is something I feel like some people never get to – but if you have to go right to the depths, then maybe you can resurface a lot quicker."

Although “Lunch At Dune” is the first suggestion of a new body of work next year, it is the focus and namesake of an EP out next month. Alongside “Lunch At Dune” are B-sides “Reverie” a sparse DIY acoustic original, “Apple”, Gordi’s rework of Charli XCX’s popular 2024 single, and two alternate versions of the title track – “Lowboy Version” – a slinky detuned re-pitched edition – and an experimental live take “Castle At Bohermeen Version.”

Gordi’s documentation of her journey through self-discovery, identity and sexuality shines through in previous albums Reservoir and Our Two Skins, seeing the latter recognized with an AIR Award and nominated for an ARIA Award and two J Awards. Teaming up with Troye Sivan on “Wait,” from the film Three Months, Gordi has also been collaborating with a host of impressive names, remixing Julien Baker and more as well as tracks with Ben Bohmer, The Blaze, Helado Negro, Loraine James and Maggie Lindemann. Gordi also co-wrote the theme song to the Oscar-nominated animated feature film The Mitchells vs the Machines. Post-lockdown, where she returned for a stint as a medical doctor on the frontline, she returned to live stages around the world, making her Sydney Opera House debut for VIVID, and completed extensive tours of Australia, US and Europe with Bon Iver, The Tallest Man On Earth, Gang of Youths and more.

UPCOMING GORDI TOUR DATES

Tuesday November 12 - Public Records, NYC, NY (LAST NIGHT)

Sunday November 17 – Bob Baker, Los Angeles, CA

Thursday November 21 – Workman’s Cellar, Dublin IRELAND

Wednesday November 22 – The Old Church, London UK [SOLD OUT]

Friday November 24 – Michelberger, Berlin GERMANY [FREE SHOW, RSVP]

Photo Credti: Nicola O'Reilly

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