Fragile as Humans Emily Barker

• 1With Small We Start04:03
• 2Call it a Day03:45
• 3Wild to be Sharing This Moment03:27
• 4Loneliness04:11
• 5The Quiet Ways03:19
• 6Feathered Thing03:59
• 7Fragile as Humans03:54
• 8Sad Songs03:31
• 9Life is for an Hour03:03
• 10Acisoma03:26
• Total Runtime36:38

Info for Fragile as Humans

On her new album, Fragile as Humans—written and recorded as her time living in the UK was coming to a close—Emily Barker turns her lyrical gaze inwards. The expansive themes of her previous album A Dark Murmuration of Words are replaced by an empathetic concern for matters more personal, familial, closer to home. The ten songs take us on a deep dive into the human condition, an unflinching self-examination of grief, pain, loneliness and loss, at the same time sparkling with hope and optimism.

Luke Potashnick's intricate production puts Emily's expressive voice at the very forefront, exposing its full emotional range—vulnerable, yet assured—backed by a cinematic sonic palette provided by Richard Causon on keys, Tim Harries on bass and Tom Visser on drums, with Luke himself contributing additional guitars, effects and studio wizardry.

As Emily writes in the album's pivotal title track, we live lives of complexity, grappling with loneliness and disconnection, searching for compassion, connection and community – we are all “fragile as humans and made of who we love”.

Emily Barker, vocals, guitar
Tim Harries, piano, bass
Luke Potashnick, guitar, synthesizer, Mellotron choir
Tom Visser, drums
Richard Causon, Hammond organ, synthesizer, Mellotron
Rebekah Allan, violin

Emily Barker
is the award-winning songwriter and performer of the theme to BBC TV's Wallander starring Kenneth Branagh. Her music is a blend of roots influences from country to English folk via 60s pop, all wrapped in the rich string arrangements and multi-part vocal harmonies of The Red Clay Halo, spearheaded by Emily's clear, expressive voice and her charismatic stage presence.

Alongside the Wallander theme, Emily has also provided the theme music to BBC TV drama The Shadow Line (which won an Ivor Novello for best TV soundtrack for series composer Martin Phipps) and has recently (in collaboration again with Martin Phipps) composed music for Daniel Barber's The Keeping Room (Sam Worthington, Britt Marling, Hailee Steinfeld) as well as her first feature length soundtrack, for Jake Gavin's UK road movie Hec McAdam starring Peter Mullan.

Emily's most recent album with The Red Clay Halo, Dear River, was critically acclaimed across the board, with four and five star reviews including lead reviews in The Times and Evening Standard, alongside recognition from specialist magazines such as Maverick, R2 and Country Music People. It went on to be voted 'Americana Album of the Year' by readers of the UK's foremost roots music website, Spiral Earth, and debuted in the UK Independent Album Breakers chart at #3, spending 5 weeks in the top 20.

This album contains no booklet.