Laura Marling

A few years ago, Laura Marling was studying for a masters in psychoanalysis when she was introduced to the concept of Family Constellations — a therapeutic approach in which individuals come to understand themselves in the context of their family dynamic. For Marling, it had proved intriguing; a way to explore all of the stories, scripts and dynamics that we carry with us through our lives; their lingering influence, their governing principles.

In early 2023, when she became a mother, she thought of it again. This time, however, Marling had a new perspective, a realisation that with the birth of her daughter she had become “a different part of the constellation” — shuffling up the generational branches and rearranging the sequence. There was a reassessment, a new understanding of her parents, an acknowledgement that we are all moving along the same inexorable path.

Her eighth album, Patterns in Repeat, considers all of these matters, making an exploration of mortality as much as motherhood, in which songs from before meet songs from after, old tunes, lullabies, instrumentals, and even a track written by her own father. But all are infused with a startling intimacy; a sonic representation of a new kind of closeness.