Mother Church – The Long Way Around
Trapped Animal is incredibly proud to present Mother Church, a brand new folk sensation featuring a founding member of HMLTD and Bishopskin. Sharing a glimpse into their captivating majestic splendour, the band are releasing their debut single ‘The Long Way Round’ on 28th May 2026 via Trapped Animal Records, ahead of their upcoming album later this year.
Following their collaboration in avantgarde folk band Bishopskin after initially crossing paths at mass at an Oxford University Chapel, Revd Tati Gutteridge and James Donovan have now decided to create music together as Mother Church. Both no strangers to music, with Donovan having been a founding member and songwriter in much-hyped London band HMLTD and Gutteridge an avid songwriter who discovered her love of the Anglican choral tradition back in her 20s before joining her husband’s experimental rock band Ex Giant, this new project interweaves theological themes and plainsong with elements of alternative folk and literary inspirations, whilst the name Mother Church combines the two main themes of their songs: love and faith. With the addition of sweeping – and largely improvised! – strings from classically trained violinist Hana Miyagi (who James initially met and was blown away by at a Fat White Family jam night) , their debut album Yolk offers a carefully crafted collection of compositions, each oozing an enthralling splendour and intrigue.
As an introduction to the album Mother Church are now sharing its first single, ‘The Long Way Round’. Reflecting on how one can feel apprehensive or cautious about falling in love after previous mistakes, the track draws inspiration from both biblical and literary sources; an Adam and Eve inspired story of desire with references to Christina Rossetti’s sapphic poem, ‘The Goblin Market’. With its atmospheric folk-strewn musicality lilting alongside Gutteridge’s glistening celestial vocals and rich lyrical narrative, it’s a perfect glimpse into the captivating majesty of the world that Mother Church have created.
Recorded in a single day, live onto tape in one or two takes, in the crypt of St John in Bethnal Green Church with Louis Grace (Legss), Yolk fuses together musical influences ranging from expansive late Romanticism and early 20th century classical music, to obscure Estonian folk singers and David Bowie. Interweaving improvised strings and clarinet melodies with its lyrically rich reflections on overarching themes such as love, faith and motherhood, it also showcases Mother Church’s unique wit and insight, offering a refreshing and immersive take on genres and subject matter which may not always seem that accessible in contemporary music.
Talking about her hopes for the album, Gutteridge reflects:
“I hope these songs communicate something about my personal experience of the universal (I hope) desire to become virtuous. We may all believe different things theologically, but pursuing virtue and lamenting over vice is something almost everyone does, though I feel as though we may have lost the language for it as a culture (perhaps because we associate all this kind of talk with the – incredibly fallible and often historically oppressive – Church).
#mother.church