ALISON Moyet will play York Barbican on November 19 as the only Yorkshire date of her British and Irish autumn tour.
The 55-year-old Essex soul, blues and pop singer-songwriter will be promoting her new studio album, Other, after its June 16 release on the Cooking Vinyl label on CD, vinyl, cassette and download.
Once one half of Yazoo with Vince Clarke, Moyet returned to those electronic days on her last Barbican visit in October 2013 in the wake of that year's studio album, The Minutes.
The catalyst for the new record was Moyet's already fruitful alliance with producer and songwriting collaborator Guy Sigsworth, who previously worked with Björk, Goldie and Madonna and co-created The Minutes, a record that reached number five in the British charts.
Alison Moyet performing her electronic set at York Barbican in October 2013. Picture: David Harrison
Outlining the creative process behind Other, Moyet says: “For me, making a record at this age, lyrically, is a different proposition. Observation in most cases replaces emotion. The invisibility of middle-aged woman rather thrills me and instead I watch.
"Subject matter covers what you might expect from a pop album. Dyslexia, locked-out syndrome, diversity, Persephone, doggedness and the Internet.
"Always asked what a song is about, I attempted to cooperate, but in truth though the lyrics incorporated my best attempt to describe what I see and of the meaning that is mine, I want, who chooses to, to find their own landscape or indeed none. Some of us have always felt 'Other'. I no longer wish it were otherwise.”
Favouring an electronic soundscape once more, Moyet's new tracks include the zingy Lover, Go; the chic soundtrack-style The English U; a nod to her rock'n'roll roots, Beautiful Gun; the icily Germanic arpeggios of Reassuring Pinches and the ambient, spoken-word poem April 10th.
Steve Gullick's artwork for Alison Moyet's new album, Other
The album's hauntingly fragile and sparse title track is accompanied by a hypnotic video directed by Steve Gullick and is available as an instant track download when pre-ordering the album via alisonmoyet.com/. Further track titles will be I Germinate, The Rarest Birds, Happy Giddy and Alive.
Aside from making Other, Moyet has been busy with another form of creativity, studying sculpture at college, and among other happenings of note since The Minutes, she has received an Icon Award at Nordoff Robbins Silver Clef Awards and given a hot-ticket performance with a 32-piece orchestra at Burberry’s London Fashion Week womenswear show.
Last year, Moyet composed and performed a new arrangement of Sigh No More Ladies, from Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing for a BBC 2 live special as part of the Royal Shakespeare Company's celebration of the Bard's 400th anniversary.
Tickets for The Other Tour's York gig will go on sale at 10am on Friday on 0844 854 2757 and online at yorkbarbican.co.uk, gigst.rs/AMo and ticketmaster.co.uk
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