Louise Goffin finds the light outside the room on new single 'Promise Yourself'

'Promise Yourself' began with almost no words at all, and perhaps that's why Louise Goffin's new single feels so instinctive.

The song started late one evening in her home studio when her son Hayden Wells came home, picked up a guitar and joined her in singing improvised sounds over an emerging idea. A phone memo captured the moment, complete with fragments of real lyrics, guitar and an added drum beat. She found the title immediately, but working out what the song was actually trying to say took considerably longer.

The music had already established such a strong emotional atmosphere that she struggled to find language capable of matching it. Images began to surface, but the breakthrough arrived when her son suggested his friend Aidan Tauber might be able to hear meaning inside their improvised vocals. His contribution helped uncover the affection already buried inside the song, opening the way for them both to complete the verses.

Recorded at Sunset Sound, 'Promise Yourself' carries the hazy emotional pull of Mazzy Star while allowing touches of Pink Floyd and Neil Young to hover around its edges. She plays piano and guitar herself, while Wells contributes guitar and bass, and Charlie Faragher provides drums, giving the track a warm, unhurried foundation.

Midway through, she introduces spoken word recorded directly into her phone. The image of trying to force a puzzle piece into the wrong picture, while accepting the time lost doing so, gives the song another layer of reflection. It allows it to become a meditative anthem about looking beyond the enclosed space of your own thoughts, recognising the evening falling around you and remembering that other people, other possibilities and an entire world still exist outside.

It begins as gibberish between family members and gradually becomes something remarkably clear; offering us a gentle reminder that sometimes the way back into the world starts by promising yourself you will actually go out and meet it.