Natalie Wildgoose Releases New EP Rural Hours as Tour and Festival Run Begins
- BabyStep Magazine
- 2 days ago
- 2 min read
Lo-fi folk songwriter Natalie Wildgoose has released her new EP Rural Hours today (15 April) via state51 — a quietly powerful collection shaped by isolation, landscape and instinct.
Written and recorded over the course of a year, much of the EP was brought to life in a remote bothy in the Yorkshire Dales — two hours from the nearest village, with no electricity or heating. Candlelight, crackling fire and the sound of wind outside all seep into the recordings, giving Rural Hours a raw, lived-in atmosphere that feels worlds away from the studio.
It’s a fitting backdrop for Wildgoose’s approach. Known for seeking out pianos in forgotten spaces — from Victorian mills to village halls and chapels — she lets location guide the sound, recording to tape and leaning into imperfections that make each track feel unearthed rather than produced.
New single “Sibyl” captures that spirit. Drawing on ancient mythology and recorded between a Victorian mill and the same remote bothy, it’s delicate, intimate and slightly otherworldly — a thread that runs through the EP as a whole.
The release lands just as Wildgoose heads into a busy run of live dates.
She kicks off a nationwide tour supporting LYR this week, before appearances at The Great Escape, Latitude and Deer Shed festivals, and her biggest headline show to date at Stoke Newington Old Church in May.
Already picking up strong support across BBC 6Music, The Guardian, CLASH and more, Rural Hours feels like a step forward — more detailed, more immersive, but still rooted in the same hushed intensity that’s made her stand out.
Quiet, patient and deeply atmospheric, it’s a record that rewards slowing down.
Rural Hours is out now.
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