South London six-piece Gently Tender today have announced their new EP ‘This Was Once Fields,’ out 22nd May via TODO Records.

The band have also shared lead single ‘A Mound A Field,’ a rousing five-minute epic, complete with visuals directed by Maisy Banks that see frontman Sam Fryer traverse through city and countryside in a surreal, dreamlike state.

Fryer shares, “’A Mound A Field’ is the essentially inspired by the beginning of a walk that I did two years ago. It started in Ridge, a small village in Hertfordshire, and went all the way down through the hills of North London, into central and finished at Temple on the north bank of the Thames.

The song is capturing the moment when you’re walking the open fields and then are suddenly hit with the view of the vast open city, being aware of the changes in emotion, how it changes the way you breathe, and how it compels you to meditate on all life on Earth how it has developed for all good and worse.”

‘This Was Once Fields’ is Gently Tender’s first new music since 2023; sonically inspired by the landscapes of the rolling hills and rugged moors of the British countryside, the band’s stirring indie rock sound is built from lush harmonies and pastoral melodies, touching on elements of folk, punk and soul.

Of the origins of the new EP, Fryer shares “The songs that make up this project represent different chapters, memories, thoughts and reflections on the life I have lived in the city. How I’ve always managed to live here but never felt like I actually belong in such a loud and fast paced nerve-jangling environment.

To give myself breaks from writing in the darkness of my windowless studio in Haringey, I have been walking the green belt of London for 14 years, and I never imagined it would provide me with so much inspiration. It has provided me with a universe of material that I can dive back into when I need to escape, and that’s where this music was born.”

Headline photo: Maisy Banks

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