Only You Left The Orielles

• 1 Three Halves 04:22
• 2 Shadow of You Appears 03:21
• 3 Tears Are 05:32
• 4 Embers 03:31
• 5 Tiny Beads Reflecting Light 03:32
• 6 The Woodland Has Returned 04:16
• 7 All in Metal 03:32
• 8 You are Eating a Part of Yourself 03:59
• 9 Whenever (I May Not Feel So Close) 04:39
• 10 Wasp 03:35
• 11 To Undo the World Itself 03:51
• Total Runtime 44:10

Info for Only You Left

Through this process of creative renewal, the Manchester-based trio – completed by drummer Sidonie Hand-Halford – have managed to weather a pandemic, defy the fickleness of a trend-led music industry, and emerge, phoenix-like, with something familiarly Orielles, yet altogether different.

Recorded in two locations – Hydra and Hamburg – over the summer of 2024, the 11 tracks of Only You Left sees the band consolidate the bold experimentation of their previous LP, Tableau (2022), with a return to the more stripped-back, song-led approach of their early origins.

“There’s nothing more trad than a three-piece,” quips Henry, in reference to the band’s decision to return to their roots as a trio. Originally from Halifax, the Orielles first came to recognition in 2018 with their debut album, the indie-rock Silver Dollar Moment, which is approaching its eighth birthday in February 2026. “These things come in like seven year cycles. So we've come in like a full circle back to a familiar place, just as different people.”

By exploring binaries and contrasts, the Orielles are finding shapes in the chaos and confusion of the world around us – it’s an undertaking that benefits from more than 15 years of close collaboration, driven by friendship and the artistic compulsion to find meaning in music.

"Ambiguous, unsettling and masterfully constructed, there are louder, more intense, and indeed more complex tracks across the ornate and diverse record. But this song is lasting; it sits with you. And that’s the mark of a true classic in the making, and a future live favourite for the Manchester band.

After attracting new fans across the country whilst supporting English Teacher last Autumn, The Orielles set out this week on an intimate instore tour, with a landmark headline gig at the ICA in London scheduled in June. Their trend-defying music creatively renewed once more, Only You Left is a reminder to look beyond the binaries of the world; a reminder to find your third half." (Taran Will)

The Orielles

The Orielles
Since forming in the West Yorkshire town of Halifax, over a decade ago whilst still in their early teens, the Orielles have journeyed from lo-fi DIY indie origins (Silver Dollar Moment, Heavenly Recordings 2018) to Stereolab and A Certain Ratio inspired avant-pop (Disco Volador, Heavenly Recordings 2020), even directing and scoring their own experimental film (La Vita Olistica, 2021).

Now, with new album Tableau (Heavenly Recordings, 2022), the Orielles have created their first genuinely contemporary record – an experimental double album self-produced in collaboration with producer Joel Anthony Patchett (King Krule, Tim Burgess). In doing so, the Orielles have utilised holistic jazz practices, oblique 21st century electronica, experimental 1960s tape loop methods, otherworldly AutoTuned vocal sounds, the downer dub of Burial, Sonic Youth’s focus on improvisation and feedback, and Brian Eno’s legendary Oblique Strategy cards.

At the end of 2020, the Orielles – vocalist and bassist Esmé Hand-Halford, drummer Sidonie Hand-Halford and guitarist Henry Carlyle-Wade – regrouped to rehearse in Manchester, the city that the band have made their home across the last five years. When all of the band’s live dates to promote their second album were scrapped due to the pandemic, the group instead spent 2020 creating La Vita Olistica, a high-concept art film directed and written by the Hand-Halford sisters which they toured in cinemas across the following year.

“When we’ve talked about being influenced by film, people think we mean directors but it’s not that at all” explains Esmé, “it’s about trying to make those ebbs, and flows, and creating tension.” Ideas from scoring that film was beginning to filter into the band’s rehearsals – this would be the beginning of a series of creative breakthroughs that would result in Tableau.

One such breakthrough came when the Orielles were booked to host a monthly show on Soho Radio. Broadcasts quickly became impromptu research and development sessions for the ideas that would feed into the album.

This album contains no booklet.