'Butterflies' is the lead track from the new Ishmael Ensemble album “Rituals”, out now on Severn Songs. It was written during an artist residency in Mexico at the end of a long 2 year period of touring. Much of the drive for the new album was about leaning into the heavier electronic sounds the group had been exploring whilst on stage, however Butterflies was a chance to explore the softer more intimate side of their sound. Band leader & producer Pete Cunningham was messing about with some drums in the middle of the night when Holysseus Fly jumped on the piano. “It all just flowed out in one evening, it felt like a perfect bookend to the album for the album & everything we’ve achieved up until now”.

Formed in 2017 by producer and saxophonist Pete Cunningham, Ishmael Ensemble's debut LP ‘A State Of Flow’ was Contemporary Album Of The Month in The Guardian and gained radio plays from UK tastemakers Gilles Peterson, Tom Ravenscroft and Mary Anne Hobbs. However it was their 2021 album ‘Visions of Light’ that saw the group reach wider acclaim – receiving glowing reviews in The Observer and Mojo, and the accolade of Huey Morgan’s Album Of The Year on BBC 6 Music. This was followed by a solid 3 year run of international touring including shows in Mexico and the US, as well as multiple sold-out tours in the UK and EU.

With recognition and plaudits growing in stature from press and radio alike, so too grew the stages they found themselves on, from Glastonbury’s famous West Holts stage to Brixton Academy, offering the band the opportunity to maximise their already vast cinematic music to fit their new surroundings, leaning into the luscious walls of sound and heady swirling electronics now synonymous with their live shows. With that in mind Cunningham set his sights on capturing this new-found energy, using it as fuel for LP 3.

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