Introducing Shell Company & Older Brother – Shards

Shell Company & Older Brother tap into the Mancunian continuum to deliver heavy sounds for heavy times on Shards, their debut release on Numbers, out in full on April 18, 2025. The single, 4U (Luv Thing) is out everywhere now.

4U
IT’S NOT A LOVE THING
BUT IT’S A LOVE THING
IT’S NOT A LOVE THING
BUT IT’S A LOVE THING

→Listen to 4U (Luv Thing) and buy Shards

Born from voice notes sent between London and Lisbon, the release took shape remotely before being recorded inside Manchester’s The White Hotel, then refined in the sonic labs of Numbers and La Chunky in Glasgow.

Set across one night, Shards is a fragment of the never ending process of breakdown and placing pieces back together. Along four tracks, the voices of Shell Company (Rosabella Allen) and Older Brother begin far apart, then argue, reflect and collide, trying to find the ground they stand on, with the music laid by brothers Rob and Chris Banks. The two voices work both together and against each other, rendering images that could only exist in limbo: running taps, cans on the floor, and crumbling walls.

Older Brother met Shell Company at their first London show at Spanners, where they all returned in March 2025, this time together – live dates below.

Shell Company & Older Brother say of the release —

“Shards is a scream that sings softly. A record that shifts between confusion and sense, hopelessness and hope. Despite moments of intense and perfect connection, the shards rarely fit. Shards is a record not about giving up, but giving in. A recording of the victory that comes from surrendering to float, all because ‘it will all make sense one day’. Shards is about love that begins and ends with broken pieces.”

Buy Shards on vinyl and listen to the full EP now.

Shell Company & Older Brother Live Dates
14 March – Salford, The White Hotel – tickets
15 March – London, Spanners – tickets
18 April – Glasgow, Numbers @ Exit

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Shell Company & Older Brother – Shards
Vinyl / Digital • 18 April 2025
Numbers • NMBRS77

1. Shard
2. 4U (Luv Thing)
3. 10AM
4. In The Silence It Only Gets Louder

Written by Shell Company & Older Brother
Recorded by Jonathan Barrett in The White Hotel
Additional Vocals on 4U (Luv Thing) by Elsa Berzigotti-Williams
Mixed by CM and Rob Banks in Numbers and La Chunky
Mastered by Noel Summerville
Artwork by Ben Drury
Artwork Photography by Ben Jackson & Rosabella Allen
Artist Photography by Ben Jackson
Numbers 2025 • NMBRS77