Domino Kirke – The Most Familiar Star
Today UK-born and New York based singer, songwriter, producer, doula, and mother Domino Kirke is proud to announce her sophomore full length LP, The Most Familiar Star due to release on April 18th. With the announcement comes a haunting and beautiful single and video for ‘It’s Not There’, a collaboration with Angel Olsen about questioning the family you chose, with hypnotic vocals revolving around a Sharon Van Etten sample.
Kirke wrote and recorded The Most Familiar Star with Elliot Krimsky and Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, all parents to young children. “This whole album is about coming back to yourself and meeting you where you are,” Kirke notes. “Pretty much every song addresses loss of self and later renewal. The core themes are grieving who you used to be pre-family, pre-marriage, and pre-parenthood and then reuniting with parts of yourself that you’d perhaps lost while trying to understand how the landscape of your life looks post-change.” The result is an artfully shaped living and breathing soundscape anchored by rich instrumentation suited to Domino’s range and lyrics.
Domino initially captivated listeners at the helm of the band Domino, touring with everyone from Lily Allen to Gang Of Four. She evolved across solo releases such as Everyone Else Is Boring EP [2006], The Guard EP [2012], and the unanimously applauded Beyond Waves [2017]. Her journey into motherhood paralleled this musical trajectory. She first became a mom in 2009 and welcomed her second son during 2020. In the meantime, she concurrently founded and led in-demand Brooklyn-based doula collective Carriage House Birth and co-authored the 2021 book Life After Birth: Portraits of Love and the Beauty of Parenthood.
Along the way, Domino carefully assembled The Most Familiar Star with Krimsky and Taylor. “We’re all deeply creative, but we’re also really invested in being attentive parents. We wonder, ‘Can we do it all?’ A lot of the songs are about this central question. Most people attempt to become parents in silos and corners of themselves without art, creativity, or community. That’s impossible. I believe parents need to be witnessed by each other, communities, and themselves.”
It was also important to Domino that the accompanying visuals thoughtfully reflect the album’s themes. The video for ‘It’s Not There’ is a gorgeous dance performance by real life dancers, actors, and choreographers Omri Drumlevich and Zina Zinchenko, who are a real life couple. The shoot took place over the course of about a year and a half, parts shot during their pregnancy and parts shot after the baby had been born. The result is a beautiful statement on the energy shift that parents have going from one child to more than one.
“When people listen to this, I really want them to listen to the words carefully,” Kirke adds. “Fans will often tell me, ‘Wow, I didn’t know I needed to hear you say that.’ I hope these songs are a balm for your soul, but also force you to maybe go to therapy,” she laughs.
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