The album includes the recently released tracks Breaking The Circle, Everything is Sweet and Lost in the Sunshine alongside new focus track Hearing in Colour, and is out now via Cooking Vinyl.

HANA was made with long-time collaborator and friend Ed Harcourt. It is their third in a trilogy of records, with each stemming around the thematic frame of a location.

The collaboration began in 2014 with the critically and commercially successful Wanderlust, which was inspired by Eastern Europe, and continued in 2016 with Familia, inspired by Latin America. New album HANA, which Harcourt describes as “kaleidoscopic joy”, is inspired by East Asia and began with the album track Tokyo and Sophie’s first trip to Japan pre-pandemic in 2020. The title references the Japanese word for ‘blossom’, giving an early introduction to the glorious alternative pop record.

Opening with the escalating synth loop of A Thousand Orchids, HANA features Reflections, a track about the passing of time partly influenced by ABBA, the album’s emotional centre Until The Wheels Fall Off beautifully inspired by her late step-father, and one of Sophie’s favourite tracks We’ve Been Watching You, which is the quirky album closer about aliens.

The album launches today with focus track Hearing in Colour, which Sophie says is “inspired by synaesthesia, when your senses come to you in different ways so you might see shapes when you hear music, or associate colours with days of the week. I’m curious about this and it makes me think of how alert your senses are when you fall in love. This song is the story of love giving you that experience.”

Recent singles Lost in the Sunshine and Breaking The Circle were both B-Listed at Radio 2 and new album HANA follows Sophie’s most recent album Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco: Live from the London Palladium, which was also her first live album. Sophie recently followed the Breaking The Circle video with her new video for Lost in the Sunshine, which was filmed in Rome with long-term collaborator Sophie Muller.

Earlier this year, Sophie performed her first single from the new album, Breaking The Circle, and her hit single Murder on the Dancefloor as well as a cover of Madonna’s Open Your Heart alongside the BBC Concert Orchestra for an exclusive BBC Radio 2 Piano Session for Radio 2 and on BBC Sounds.

Following her much-loved Kitchen Disco parties shared on Instagram over lockdown, Sophie has since released two albums, Songs from the Kitchen Disco and Sophie Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco: Live from the London Palladium, which followed her sold out Kitchen Disco live tour.

She has also released her first book Spinning Plates, is in her eighth series of the successful podcast of the same name, has released her first cookbook Love. Food. Family: Recipes from the Kitchen Disco with her husband and The Feeling bassist Richard Jones and has a weekly show Sophie’s Ellis-Bextor’s Kitchen Disco on BBC Radio 2. Sophie also completed an impressive 24-hour Danceathon for Children in Need in November 2021 where she raised over £1M.

Sophie will be performing at festivals across the UK again this Summer, including newly announced Glastonbury Festival, where she performs on the Pyramid Stage on the Sunday ahead of Elton John’s final show later that day, as well as The Mighty Hoopla, Latitude, Isle of Wight, Camp Bestival** and many more! She will also be bringing her Kitchen Disco live show to audiences in the UK this Winter with her Christmas Kitchen Disco tour and recently announced an intimate London album launch show on Friday 30 June at Lafayette, which has sold out. Tickets for her Winter tour are on sale now and full headline and festival dates