Press quotes
”It Was Also Sometimes Daylight is a gorgeous debut and a great follow-up to his 2022 multi-artist project, Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds”
- Jude Rogers, The Guardian
“There is an ease to Driver’s singing and playing, and a lo-fi aspect to the recording, that belies the nuance and complexity of his songwriting, which at times approaches genuine poetry. He is capable of taking highly personal, confessional songwriting and elevating it with unconventional language: Shoal sounds like Richard Thompson, if he’d been a marine biologist” - Thomas Blake, KLOF Magazine
”Extraordinary sound”
- Cerys Matthews, BBC 6 Music
“What beauty; almost hymnal”
- Roddy Hart, BBC Radio Scotland
"As if Nick Drake had traded some of his solitude for dawn and birdsong"
- Esmeralda Moberg, Radio Sweden
“Absolutely sublime”
– Lee Schofield (Wild Fell)
”Hypnotic” - The Scotsman ★★★★
Songlines Magazine ★★★★
It Was Also Sometimes Daylight
My debut album It Was Also Sometimes Daylight was released on October 10th, 2025. It was recorded partly in London with the help of David Gray and partly in a converted barn in rural Finland (Lammaskallion Audio). Informed by my Orkney childhood and passion for nature, it’s shaped as much by acoustic folk and contemporary influences as by the rhythms and textures of the natural world.
The album follows on from my multi-artist project Simmerdim: Curlew Sounds, released in partnership with the RSPB in 2022 and inspired by my memories of curlews - one of the UK’s most threatened birds - calling out in the simmerdim (the night-long twilight found in the Northern Isles around midsummer).
It Was Also Sometimes Daylight features contributions from some wonderful artists including Owen Spafford (fiddle), Francesca Ter-Berg (cello), Nathan Riki Thomson (double bass), and a cast of non-human collaborators: curlews, frogs, toads, geese, and more.
Written and produced by Merlyn Driver
Mixed by Andy Bell
Mastered by Simon Scott
Artwork: Mat Martin, Merlyn Driver, Nisrine Achari
Art design: Mat Martin Studio
Recorded by Valtteri Väänänen (Lammaskallion Audio, Finland) and Ben de Vries (UK)