Hailing from Kildare, Sive has been crafting ethereal alt-folk since a bandmate inspired her to write her own songs when she was just fifteen years old. Her musical education continued at Ballymerfort College in her native Ireland, before taking in periods in Germany and the Netherlands. This week, Sive is set to release her latest, self-titled EP, her first new material since 2017’s, The Roaring Girl. Ahead of that release, today we’re premiering the latest track from the EP, Yuki Onna.

Yuki Onna takes its name from a character from Japanese mythology, a beautiful but elusive ‘snow woman’. As Sive explain, “for me she was the perfect personification of that feeling that can get under your skin, that ‘something’ you try to escape, but the more you run the more it seems to become you. The Yuki Onna in this song will follow you and then elude you, but she won’t leave until you listen to what she’s trying to teach you.”

Musically, Yuki Onna is a beautiful take on the ethereal-folk blueprint; fluttering Fleet Foxes-like guitars, are paired with paired back percussion and rightly prominent pulses of bass. The intricate layering of the vocals creates a spectacular contrast, the lead vocal crisp and clear, like the middle ground of Beth Gibbons and Soak, while the dense, echoing vocals create a distant intensity to proceedings. Breathing new life into the alt-folk genre, Sive is quietly marking herself out as an artist of huge potential.

Sive’s self-titled EP is out May 3rd via Veta Records. Click HERE for more information on Sive.