dryas by Faith Eliott

A haunting, post-apocalyptic ballad wrapped in atmospheric production, ‘snowglobe’ is the Lost Map debut single by Minneapolis-born, Scotland-based singer-songwriter Faith Eliott (they/them). It’s the first taste of the spellbinding music to be discovered on their forthcoming new album Dryas, a lush and mysterious trove of sound and poetry touching on everything and anything from hagfish to Pleistocene volcanoes, cursed memes and late-Renaissance apocryphal monsters lurking in the aisles of ASDA. Dryas is set for release on May 30, 2025, on limited-edition 12” pastel pink coloured vinyl, CD and via digital services. It demands to be revisited again and again.

About ‘snowglobe’ Faith writes:

“A song about fear of the big, destructive things that could occur and grief for the big, destructive things already occurring. There’s a nod there in the lyrics to TS Eliot’s ‘The Hollow Men’ with ‘death’s other kingdom’. The single cover art is based on an old illustration of the Wormwood Star, which is an apocalypse star in the Book of Revelation. Biblically accurate angel energy!”

Faith Eliott grew up in the United States before moving to Scotland aged 13. Their first and most formative creative output was poetry. “As a young’un, I was a huge poetry nerd,” explains Faith. “I used to post religiously on poetry forums, where people could leave feedback on your writing. Looking back, I feel pretty nostalgic about how wholesome it was! As a totally stubborn, ADHD kid who (for better or worse) enthusiastically spurned school learning, I think I found a lot of support and creative confidence there. My sister was also dead into it, and I think we gave each other a lot of encouragement and shared incentive.”

It was after becoming lodged in the Edinburgh DIY music scene, singing backing vocals in various bands and performing in folk pubs, that they began to develop into a songwriter. Albeit still with a poetic flourish – stripped-back and heavily lyric-driven. “Words, concepts, storytelling, and delivery still tend to be priorities when I’m writing music,” says Faith. Their debut solo EP Insects was released on Song, By Toad Records in 2016, followed by the debut solo album Impossible Bodies in 2019, via Faith’s own label OK Pal Records, set-up in collaboration with fellow Edinburgh musician and friend Hailey Beavis. “Community and friendships have always been a pretty central part of what I’m up to creatively,” says Faith, “I work best when I feel like I’m part of something.”

Recorded during two week-long sessions in Perthshire at community space The Big Shed, Faith’s expansive and ambitious new album Dryas was made in close collaboration with longtime creative foil Robyn Dawson, who produced, engineered and arranged the record as well as contributed string parts. “Robyn and I have been collaborating for many years in a live setting, building a lot of shorthand and shared sensibilities,” says Faith “A few years back, when she mentioned pursuing engineering and production, I suggested we make an album together. As luck would have it, she was keen!”

Also featuring Signy Jakobsdottir on percussion, Susan Bear on synths and bass, trumpet by Ali Hendry, alto recorders by Pual Northcott and piano by Katarzyna Wiktorski, Dryas is a triumph of storytelling and world-building. Formed of everything from orchestral elements to electronic textures and found sounds, it’s full of musical landscapes as fascinating as the lyrical organisms that populate them. Taking its title from an arctic plant which thrived during periods of extreme cooling near the end of the last ice age (ancient history and archaeology are among Faith’s many passions), Dryas is a record about resilience, reassurance and sweet release. It feels almost like a kind of sonic menagerie, full of collected intellectual curio, emotions, memories, and strange animal and spirit creatures. Including at least one bear high on hallucinogenic honey.

“For me, the imagery of these resilient flowers flourishing in inhospitable landscapes serves to represent a lot of the feelings-themes I explore on the album,” says Faith, “trying to live with more adaptability, letting go of cynicism and shame.

“I hope it’s fun to listen to and presents little avenues of curiosity. Often, I use songwriting as a vehicle to research something I’m interested in. A finished song will present itself as a mini-exhibition of the vocabulary and ideas I gathered while processing new information. Pleistocene volcanos (‘laacher see 13000bce’), apocryphal late-Renaissance monsters lurking in the aisles of ASDA (‘thys creatur’), hagfish and mythological bears. Fun stuff! There’s also a lot in there about the internet. Videos of animals on the internet seem to come up a lot.”

DIY label, run by Pictish Trail, from his caravan on the Isle of Eigg, Scotland.