Eigenface Release Single + Video ‘House by the Sea’
Eigenface have released the first video single and announced the upcoming release of their debut self-titled full-length album.
Eigenface’s self-titled album will be released on Oct 2 on Home Alone Records and will be available for pre-order via Bandcamp.
Out today, the first single and video from the new album, House By The Sea was produced by videographers Threading Frames and released on Te Whanganui-a-Tara label Home Alone in late 2026.
Eigenface is a New Zealand/New York trio that blend folk intimacy, dream-punk atmospheres and electronic experimentation. Their songs move between comfort and unease, pairing bright melodies with dissonance, layered vocal harmonies and richly textured arrangements. With a sound that sits comfortably alongside artists such as Everything Everything, Son Lux and Loma while harking back to Radiohead and Portishead, Eigenface have developed a softly disarming style that finds beauty in uncertainty.
The band comprises Penelope Esplin (French for Rabbits, Lake South, Grawlixes) on synth and vocals, Elliot Vaughan (CNZ/NZSM Composer in Residence 2024, Moth Quartet) on bass and vocals, and Logan Valentine (Moon Lander) on electric guitar and vocals. The group formed from an impromptu challenge to write and perform on one another’s work, the result became a cohesive set of songs, resulting in Eigenface’s self-titled debut album.
Released on Home Alone Records, Eigenface arrives on October 2, 2026. Recorded and mixed by Vaughan and mastered by Harris Newman (Wolf Parade, Buck Meek, Godspeed You! Black Emperor), the album features Vaughan’s lush string arrangements throughout. Across its songs, the band explores memory, place, relationships and the tension between beauty and discomfort through expansive arrangements, electronic textures and intimate storytelling.
Eigenface have appeared at Day in the Bay, The Performance Arcade and Newtown Festival, and shared stages with Lake South, Julian Temple and Birdfeeder. The band will celebrate the release of their debut album with a New Zealand headline tour in October and November 2026.
On House By The Sea, Esplin writes of the love-hate feelings that emerge from living in a house by the sea on the south coast of Wellington. She weaves a delicate vocal line, exploring the pleasure of the beautiful expansive views and remoteness of the location, and being able to see the snow-capped South Island’s Kaikoura ranges. The chorus of the song expands into darker and more turbulent territory, the music and the lyrics bemoan the level of exposure to the wind that shakes ones bed and the burn of the southerly rain. The music builds to a crescendo, before being pulled to silence as the songwriter reflects “But I gotta know, I can handle it, because it will happen anyway. I gotta know I can tolerate every little bit.” Esplin reflects on the song “Although the extremes of living in that house were somewhat unique. I had to realise that like anything in life, you can’t have the good without the bad. And building emotional resilience around that can only be a good thing” The music video accompanying the song was shot by videographers Threading Frames in locations surrounding Sydney, Australia.
