Listen to the new single from Oracle Sisters' 2nd studio album ‘Divinations.'
Oracle Sisters have announced their 2nd studio album ‘Divinations’, due February 14th via Wizard Artists’, the band’s own imprint. The band also share the new single ‘Riverside.'
In support of the album, the band will embark on their biggest UK & European tour to date, stopping by at London’s KOKO on April 2nd, as well as La Cigale in their current residence of Paris. Tickets are available HERE.
After releasing the driving ‘Alouette’ earlier this month, which was supported heavily across BBC Radio 6Music, Spotify, and Apple Music as well as being nominated for a UK Music Video Award, ‘Riverside’ is a song born of the band’s innate love of melody and arrangement. It harkens back to their roots in folk and country music of their earlier EPs, melding it with this newer, more direct sound on upcoming album ‘Divinations.’ Since announcing their UK & European tour, the band have been announced on the line-up for Tramlines Festival alongside Pulp, with more UK festival dates to follow.
2023 was a whirlwind year for Oracle Sisters. The trio—Julia Johansen, Chris Willatt, and Lewis Lazar—followed the release of their debut album Hydranism with a globe-spanning tour that captivated fans and critics alike. From the highways between Knoxville and Nashville to sold-out clubs in rain-soaked Seattle, and festival stages across the UK, they logged countless hours on the road. Their journey was a tapestry of exhaustion and exhilaration, falling apart, brawls and disputes, love and acceptance. By the year’s end, just two days before Christmas, they found themselves in Tokyo, reflecting on the fleeting nature of time and the fragments of inspiration gathered along the way. It was there the seeds for their next album, Divinations, began to Sprout.
Composing as a true trio for the first time, Oracle Sisters pieced together sketches formed during stolen moments on tour. These fragments coalesced into Divinations, an album shaped by the band’s nomadic existence. The recording sessions spanned cozy Parisian studios, a barn in northern France, and the storied Valentine Studios in Los Angeles. Their creative process embraced experimentation—swapping primary instruments, playing with toy drum machines, and crafting melodies on quirky tools like the OP-1 and a baby Casio keyboard. This spirit of discovery lent the album a sense of spontaneity and wonder.
At its core, Divinations channels mysticism and timeless storytelling. The band’s songwriting draws on diverse influences, from the surrealist poetry of Baudelaire and Rimbaud to the introspective philosophies of Carl Jung. Musically, echoes of Talking Heads, Air, and Leonard Cohen resonate throughout the album and tracks like “Riverside” delve into existential Questions— “How far are you going? Is it more than money can buy?” Elsewhere on the album “Marseille,” born in the city that gave the song its name, kicks off as a trance with lyrics that play between the sincere and desperate self-help affirmations, we give ourselves while trying to find a bridge between our individual lives and a universal feeling. Lead-single “Alouette” is Oracle Sisters at their most direct; propelled by a driving bassline and exuberant strings, the track summons the sound of 80’s, 90’s, and early 2000’s rock n roll as they sing about “getting out of dodge, finding a pirate ship and sailing home.” Inspired by the book Caliban and the Witch, “Blue Left Hand” is a lyrical tapestry weaving together history, philosophy, and cultural critique. The lyrics, “It’s in the harbor of every page / It’s in the corner of the playwright’s stage / And every player and every fake / And every witch that we burned at the stake,” reflect on the forces that shaped the capitalist society we know today.
After the release of their first two singles ‘Always’ and ‘Spotlight’ and deciding to finally sign with New York label 22Twenty, the band released twin EP’s Paris I & Paris II, garnering critical acclaim and raking in over 60 million streams to date.
Their debut album was written and recorded in an old carpet factory during the second Covid lockdown on the Greek island of Hydra from which it derived its name; ‘Hydranism’, referencing the rebirthing nature of the songwriting, to the hedonism of the summer teaching at an artist residency and the myriad philosophies that disappeared that year as quickly as they sprung up. The album received great acclaim (including Clash Magazine calling it ‘an undeniable masterpiece’). All in all the album carried the band on the tailwinds of success leading them through multiple tours of Europe, four headline sold out shows of London in one year and their first world tour.
Across Divinations’ 11 tracks it’s not only geographic boundaries that were crossed but also the boundaries of time and circumstance. While their work may not consciously reflect specific worldly events, they seek to embrace the universal and offer a space for healing. “Good music would make sense to a farmer in 17th century France as it would to a pastry chef in Slovenia in the 21st century,” shares Lazar. “It’s not written for any temporal powers that be. It’s about expressing our common humanity and taking it from there.”
8 March Le 106, Rouen, FR
13 March L’Épicerie Moderne, Lyon, FR
14 March Le Rockstore, Montpellier, FR
15 March El Pumarejo, Barcelona, ES
18 March Ubu, Rennes, FR
19 March La Cigale, Paris, FR
21 March La Vapeur, Dijon, FR
22 March Rocher de Palmer, Bordeaux, FR
24 March Sala Copérnico, Madrid, ES
25 March M.Ou.Co, Porto, PT
26 March Riquela, Santiago, ES
27 March Bilborock, Bilbao, ES
28 March Le Metronum, Toulouse, FR
01 April XOYO, Birmingham, UK
02 April KOKO, London, UK
03 April Band on the Wall, Manchester, UK
04 April Hangar34, Liverpool, UK
05 April G2, Glasgow, UK
06 April Button Factory, Dublin, IE
08 April Thekla, Bristol, UK
10 April L’Aéronef, Lille, FR
11 April Doornroosje, Nijmegen, NL
12 April Paradiso, Amsterdam, NL
13 April Botanique/Grand Salon, Brussels, BE
14 April Columbia Theater, Berlin, DE
25 July, Tramlines Festival, Sheffield, UK
Photo Credit: Ella Hermë |
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