There is a rift in the landscape, a rupture in the fabric of the sky. The distant silhouette of the city disintegrates as the ground begins to shudder and shake beneath your feet, splitting open to reveal a place that’s always been there—it just took your entire world collapsing for you to discover it.
Singer-songwriter Clara Mann’s evocative debut album Rift navigates the fractured environment of the in-between—those liminal spaces exposed between light and dark, growth and remorse, loss and reclamation. It is a record that makes a strong case for hope, those luminescent silver linings in the dark.
Mann’s music reflects the people and places that have shaped and held her—physically, emotionally, and creatively. Raised in the Lot Valley in rural France before moving to the UK for her teens, these formative years provided her with a deep sense of belonging, identity, and growth. Yet, it is in motion, in placelessness, that Mann feels most at home: “Just the sun above me and my keys and my car.” Her new record is a testament to this state of in-betweenness, inviting you to step into a place that has always existed within yourself.
After releasing her second EP Stay Open in 2022, the time and space between then and now has culminated in Rift, Mann’s first album, which vividly gestures toward the fractures and ruptures that define our lives. Yet, it is more than just an album; it captures the journey and strength it takes to look inward and to move forwards through the pain of it all. Its first track, It Only Hurts, begins in a place of hopelessness, stemming from the loss of a relationship and, in turn, a future. It is a blank space that stretches out before you, where the landscape is torn apart like icebergs cracking and drifting. But hope remains a beacon of light throughout the album, a lighthouse guiding you across tumultuous waters.
Influenced by artists like Jacques Brel, Edith Piaf, Judee Sill, and Tom Waits, Mann has a deep love and care for songwriting. Her lyrics are vivid and visceral, and her approach to songwriting is not one of purging emotions but rather of composting them—digesting life’s experiences and cultivating them into something meaningful, tangible, hopeful. She is also a talented visual artist, and this often plays an integral role in her songwriting process. Using the intricate and sweeping motion of illustrating with ink, charcoal, and sometimes watercolour, she can evoke thoughts and poetry onto the page, offering a way of making sense of things and to communicate in a way that words alone cannot.
The album was primarily recorded at the 4AD Studios in London, produced and mixed by Fabian Prynn (Martha Skye Murphy, Ex:Re, Fabiana Palladino) who carefully facilitated an imaginative space for Mann to express the playful, strange and real parts of herself. Two of the tracks, It Only Hurts, and the title track Rift were both recorded in the living room studio of her friend Tom Kellett’s home in just one afternoon, with this setting mirroring the raw intimacy of these tracks. She has previously toured with Daniel Rossen (Grizzly Bear), Billie Marten, Bill Ryder-Jones and Youth Lagoon.
For Mann, the album is a tangible expression of her entire world—a snow globe raised in her palms for the world to see, in all its layers and complexities, containing all her love, relationships, memories, and experiences. It is this sheer transparency that has allowed her to relinquish and accept all parts of herself—the guilt, pain, and beauty of it all—like “swallows in the morning air, circling the dam.” Its truthfulness is its strength, not shying away from the painful experiences of life but embracing them as essential to the human experience and as part of our tapestry.
With Rift, Clara Mann acknowledges the cracks through which both despair and hope can seep. It is a deeply personal record, yet it is universally resonant, holding the mirror up to herself and to the world around her. It is a record that reflects on embracing our fault lines, navigating the ruptures that can erupt from them and moving forwards, in motion, with a renewed sense of self and aliveness. Mann’s debut album, Rift is all of her—her past, her present, her emotions, her experiences—and now, it is for you.
1. It Only Hurts
2. 'Til I Come Around
3. Driving Home The Long Way
4. Stadiums
5. Reasons
6. Remember Me (Train Song)
7. Doubled Over
8. Rift
9. Oranges
10. The Dream