Composer, vocalist, guitarist and poet Hannah Frances presents “The Space Between (ft. Daniel Rossen),” the final advance single/video from her new album, Nested in Tangles, releasing this Friday, October 10th via Fire Talk Records. Nested in Tangles is a jubilant circus strewn with billowing orchestral arrangements, and the album’s climax arrives with “The Space Between.” One of two Nested in Tangles contributions from Grizzly Bear’s Daniel Rossen, “The Space Between” features Rossen playing cello, piano and percussion, as well as lending vocal harmonies burrowed throughout the song. The result is a sweeping exhale that recognizes life’s cascade between heaviness and light.
“I don’t forgive, I let it live in the space between // what’s gone and what’s given,” Frances confesses through vocal leaps which cut across swathes of strings. “If there is another way, let it move me // if there is a way out, let it be through me.” Of the track, Frances adds: “‘The Space Between’ is the culmination point of the album. It is an exploration of surrender without resolve or forgiveness, of living in the spaces left.”
“The Space Between” is presented alongside a gorgeous music video, a culmination of a series of visual accompaniments made in collaboration between Frances and Vanessa Castro. “In ‘The Space Between’ Hannah Frances performs a modern ballet duet with an avant-garde twist choreographed by New York City Ballet’s Emma Engel,” Castro says of the video. “Inspired by Marcel Dzama’s plays and the surrealist imagination of Leonora Carrington, the piece follows Hannah’s younger self, also played by Engel, who guides her through a dialogue with her many parts. These selves are embodied by a cast in animal masks, moving through a dreamlike world that blurs childhood imagination play with the discipline of growing up as a performer.”
Engel adds: ““The choreography is dreamlike, built on playful shapes and gestures that return throughout the video. At first the movement is light and silly, but as the two characters grow closer, it transforms into something more powerful and heartfelt. Blending hints of ballet with free and abstract movement. The dance reflects connection, love and the joy of moving in sync with someone else and ultimately yourself.”
Hannah Frances will embark on a headlining US tour in support of Nested in Tangles this month, including a triumphant hometown return to Chicago, alongside stops in Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and more. A full list of tour dates are below, and tickets are on sale now.
Watch Hannah Frances’ “The Space Between (ft. Daniel Rossen)” Video
Frances wrote Nested in Tangles throughout 2023 and 2024, almost immediately following the completion of her critically acclaimed album, Keeper of the Shepherd. On Nested in Tangles, Frances narrates complex stories of familial estrangement, emotional trauma and a deepening of her own sense of trust, through a collection of intricate, dizzying and large-scale compositions. With this distinctive body of work, Frances solidifies herself as an artist of insurgent emotional clarity, committed to personal truth and self-actualization. Nested in Tangles spans the realms of progressive rock, avant-folk, and jazz, but remains anchored throughout with Frances’ signature vocal leaps and percussive, polyrhythmic fingerpicking.
Nested in Tangles incorporates layers of natural imagery — blue herons, birds in murmuration, sandcastles, a body of water’s lapping edge — alongside cuttingly lucid interrogations of Frances’ own grisly histories of familial manipulation and abuse. Through each track, ideas of both the nest and the parent are reimagined and reshaped. Frances bravely reveals the ways she’s learned to re-parent herself and care for her inner child in an attempt to emancipate herself from her past of entanglement. Nested in Tangles investigates the nuance of contradiction and multiplicity, volleying between intimacy and the expansive maximalism of Frances’ inner world.
Deeply inspired by her continued experimentation with open guitar tunings and the healing work Frances sought amidst a tumultuous resurfacing of familial trauma, Nested in Tangles probes the edges of memory, entanglement, and estrangement. With Nested in Tangles, Frances disentangles herself from the vicious cycle of generational trauma and maladaptive patterns. She chooses light, and in her choosing, demonstrates a new way of unburdening, a way to transfigure pain and fear into a new embodied wholeness.
- Pre-order Nested in Tangles
- Watch “Falling From and Further” Video
- Watch “Surviving You” Video
- Watch“Life’s Work” Video
Hannah Frances Tour Dates (Headlining Dates in Bold)
- Fri. October 17 - Chicago, IL @ Constellation +
- Wed. Nov. 5 - Washington, DC @ Songbyrd +
- Thu. Nov. 6 - Philadelphia, PA @ Kung Fu Necktie +
- Sun. Nov. 9 - Burlington, VT @ Higher Ground +
- Tue. Nov. 11 - Montreal, CA @ L'Esco +
- Wed. Nov. 12 - Toronto, CA @ Baby G +
- Fri. Nov. 14 - Brooklyn, NY @ National Sawdust +
- Mon. Dec. 1 - Calgary, AB @ Palace Theatre ^
- Thu. Dec. 4 - Vancouver, BC @ The Vogue ^
- Fri. Dec. 5 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos ^
- Sat. Dec. 6 - Portland, OR @ Wonder Ballroom ^
- Tue. Dec. 9 - San Francisco, CA @ The Independent ^
- Thu. Dec. 11 - Los Angeles, CA @ The Bellwether ^
^ w/ Foxwarren