"Her style is subtlety at its finest." - Consequence of Sound

"She defies comparison - how many neo-classical folk-hop singer-songwriters can you name?" - The 405

"Wildly disconcerting with a harrowing crescendo that sits on the very precipice of personal boundaries...a magnificent new track." - GoldFlakePaint on 'You Dream of China'

Shortly after its Friday January 29th release on her own Thesis & Instinct imprint, Texan multi-instrumentalist, composer and songwriter Emily Wells is proud to present her new album Promise in full.

Describing the process behind Promise to DIY, Wells describes the album as, "a tireless master, crony, provocateur, trickster, eat your heart out lonely kid that took two plus years to make and get to this moment.

"Mostly recorded in my own shifting studios, it came in three parts. Part one, and this is chronological, was a feast: compositional, lots of strings and vocals and exploration. It was in 3D, had strut. Part two was throwing much of this at the wall - the humility phase, tearing out the scaffolding, seeing what stands. Part three was a new form of exploration, more open to outside influence. See, I was somewhat new after that humility phase, plus I’d been to China and had a completely freaked world view. So this part was the most intimidating and bold and daring but it was what made this an album, and not a disparate collection of songs.

"I listened a lot to Bach’s Partita no 2 in D minor on this one piece of vinyl I discovered in the back of my collection, watched a soothing little piece of cinema called Complaint of an Empress by Pina Bausch regularly, and brought in a friend to help see the songs in a new way; Jacob Plasse, who lent some production ideas and eventually mixed the album with me. Now it is out of my hands and into yours, all I can hope is that it continues to breathe.“

Wells describes as, "a soul record in baroque clothing...a pauper's opera," and it's an apt summation - a stunning collection of eleven mesmerising tracks that bring to mind the dreamy ambience of Julianna Barwick, the towering heights of Cocteau Twins at their most topsy-turvy, the thoroughly modern chamber pop of Julia Holter and the beat-oriented soundscapes that Wells has proved herself a master of over her past three albums.

Her last full-length, 2012's Mama, was released via Partisan Records (Torres, Dilly Dally, Eagulls), but Wells chose to go it alone and release Promise on her own imprint, Thesis & Instinct. Describing the decision, she says: "There, too, was the question of releasing the record - in the end I chose to create a label, Thesis & Instinct, a name borrowed from one of Wallace Stevens’ aphorisms: 'Life cannot be based on a thesis, since, by nature, it is based on instinct. The thesis, however, is usually present and living is the struggle between thesis and instinct.' Studio life, too, and creation itself: the struggle between thesis and instinct."

Emily Wells - Promise | Thesis & Instinct | 29/01/16

1. Los Angeles

2. You Dream of China

3. Don't Use Me Up

4. Pack of Nobodies

5. Take It Easy

6. Come to Me

7. Fallin' In on It

8. Antidote

9. Adagio

10. Richard

11. Light is Drainin'

Promise can be ordered on CD, MP3, WAV or Double LP, via the Emily Wells online store HERE