Albert River Unveils Single / Video 'Deathbed' + Announces 'Bank Woe' Album Release Show

Sounding not unlike a spectral folk apparition on new single 'deathbed', Albert River graces our Friday with the second ballad to emerge from the Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai / Lower Hutt songwriter's forthcoming album bank woe, out in full on 6th September via Home Alone Music. Contributor to his sister Vera Ellen's Taite Music Prize winning Ideal Home Noise, the multi-faceted artist may already be known to listeners for his earlier psych-folk project A.U.R.A.'s 2019 album Secret Intelligent Light — whose live band included Ben Lemi (Trinity Roots, Dawn Diver), Deanne Krieg (Ida Lune, Congress of Animals) and Samuel Austin.

New single 'deathbed' and lead track 'send my love' feel solitary, starkly contemplative and delicately disarming. Listen to both songs below, experience River's poetic self-directed visualiser for 'deathbed' filmed by Joe Cain, pre-save bank woe HERE, and don't miss the songwriter's release event at Pōneke's Vogelmorn Upstairs this September, featuring a rare performance by Martin Sagadin. Vinyl LP copies of bank woe will be available on the night...

"There is a ghostly energy in these songs, bank woe has many meanings interweaving, it is very much exploring life and death… about being a poor artist". — Albert River

Albert River 'bank woe' LP Release with Martin Sagadin
Saturday 21st September - Vogelmorn Upstairs, Wellington
Tickets on sale HERE via UTR

Press release:

Albert River has been channeling sound since his first record at age 16, ever since he has learnt many instruments, refining the inner alchemy of his expression. Previously releasing music as A.U.R.A, with his 2019 release Secret Intelligent Light (released via LA label Cosmic Dreamer A.U.R.A worked with producer Ben Lemi (Dawn Diver, French for Rabbits, Trinity Roots and Vera Ellen) to carefully craft a sonic landscape that sought to gain a personal understanding of existence. After opening for Bright Eyes followed by a nationwide tour with Reb Fountain and Voom performing with his sister Vera Ellen (whose Taite Winning album Ideal Home Noise he made deep contributions to) Albert River returns to bring us his new LP 'bank woe'.

The making of his new album bank woe took 6 years of a very slow and deliberate process, in many ways, a ceremony, every sound and the mix all alone, He says “I had a dream that died, perhaps us artists understand that sorrow, but then somehow, the dreams dream begins stirring , a very interesting pain artistically’. Exploring concepts of death and life, bank woe is his first album since 2019’s Secret Intelligent Light and his first on Wellington / Te Whanganui-a-Tara label Home Alone.

Albert River has always followed his own distinctive path, but music is a family pursuit. His mother had a band with her brother in the late 70’s called ‘The Climb’. His sister Tali in hardcore band Dial, Human Resource and Another F****** Problem and his sister Vera Ellen.

His latest offering bank woe as Albert River feels like both a departure and a return to his earlier raw work, lo-fi and stripped back, but retaining the attention to detail in production of his later work.