Cardiff-based songwriter and writer Sad Cypress with the release of her haunting new single ‘The Other Side’, offering the first glimpse into her forthcoming EP Princess of Cups, due 3rd June.
The project of solo artist Sophie Cartmell, the new single ‘The Other Side’ captures the intimate, emotionally resonant songwriting which stylises the upcoming full project. A track which began life when Cartmell was just 18 years old, recorded on an 8-track and marked the first complete song she ever finished – the new re-recorded version years later captures the emotional distance between the introspective teenager who first wrote it and the artist she has become.
“Its about being stuck inside myself, sensing that the way out was inward but being too afraid to,” Cartmell explains. “I didn’t even really understand what I was singing about until a long time later. I had a difficult time expressing myself, with music as my only outlet, something I’m sure many musicians have experienced.”
Built around a singular, hypnotic guitar motif, ‘The Other Side’ unfolds through a pleasingly lo-fi and raw recording, capturing the essence of how it was initially written. Cartmell’s voice drifts through the arrangement with quiet intensity, revealing emotional layers that brings a compelling fragile, diary-entry like quality. The single also lays the groundwork for the wider narrative world of Princess of Cups, a project shaped as much by literature and myth as by music.
Set against the backdrop of Cardiff’s atmospheric Waterloo Gardens, the EP is accompanied by a magical realist story written by Cartmell herself. The narrative expands on themes first hinted at in the teenage composition, creating what she describes as “a collaboration across time.”
“It’s built around a song I wrote at eighteen and a story I wrote decades later using parts work methods,” she says. “The teenage song named the problem. The magical realism story is about the transition. The remaining songs gathered around that arc on their own.”
Blending indie folk with mysticism, emotional vulnerability and literary storytelling, Sad Cypress occupies a singular artistic space. Cartmell describes the project as a “fallen goddess” wandering the earth, transforming experiences of heartbreak, trauma and transformation into songs threaded with mystic symbolism and poetic imagery.
Based in Cardiff, Sad Cypress has steadily built a devoted following through performances across South Wales and the South West of England. Highlights include headlining Folk At The Moon at The Moon, appearing at Devauden Festivaland hosting a successful Oxfam fundraiser at The Mount Without. Following the 2023 re-release of her album Magic Mountain, Cartmell is now gearing up for the new EP Princess of Cups, due June 3rd.
