Browsing Tag

Chamber Pop

Emily Manuel is beautifully baroque in her indie chamber single, Live Forever

Posted on 17 February 2023

World-class singer-songwriter and composer Emily Manuel is beautifully baroque in her latest orchestral single, Live Forever. The chamber strings lend themselves effortlessly to the artfully timeless timbre of her silkily demure vocal lines as they explore the theme of perpetual legacy.

After Paul Simon revealed the power of lyricism to Manuel, the Denver-based artist orchestrated her distinctive indie chamber sonic signature, which carries the influence of classical scores, the deconstructed expression of jazz and a touch of Eastern flavour.

So far in her career, Manuel has spilt her sound into theatres, olive groves, and taverns. Her live performance highlight was sharing the stage with the icon Jamie Cullen. Although, evidently, he wouldn’t have been the only icon on stage that night.

Live Forever was officially released on February 3rd. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Layman.TV sings a ‘Harmony Eternal’ in his ethereal indie folk pop single

Posted on 30 August 2022
https://soundcloud.com/user-534530743/harmony-eternal-1

Bridging the gaps between Glen Hansard, James Yorkston and Richard Hawley, The London-based singer-songwriter, Layman.TV released his latest ethereal indie folk single, Harmony Eternal.

The flourishing chamber strings against his harmonised spoken word reflections on nature and all the parallels they create within our lives pull together to create a poetically celestial sensory experience in Harmony Eternal. It is almost enough to guilt trip you for not sharing the same romantic lust for life. I say almost; the sublime appreciation for natural phenomena becomes infectious. Especially when the nuanced rock guitars start to bolster the passion in the otherwise graciously otherworldly soundscape.

Harmony Eternal is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Elisa Winter – Summer Spent Dreaming: orchestrally apocalyptic post-grunge resonance

Posted on 9 July 2022

While many artists desperately wrestled with their creativity during the first lockdown only to reveal trite lyricism the performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and baroquely phenomenal recording artist, Elisa Winter foresaw the new normal before the modern plague was on our door.

Finally, her debut album, Summer and Smoke, which was officially released on Summer Solstice 2022, is here to spill orchestrally apocalyptic post-grunge resonance. The LP tracks across the tensions between truth, reality and gaslighting, with the engrossingly stunning highlight, Summer Spent Dreaming.

Lush yet tumultuous. Visceral yet encompassing the detachment we all felt in some capacity, Summer Spent Dreaming is the most authentic aural depiction of the frustration and entropy I’ve heard yet.

Everything changed, in a way it is almost impossible to put in words. I say almost because Elisa Winter discernibly succeeded with “speak to me please, what has happened to you? Searching for you in your eyes, you won’t let me in.” There’s been a disconnect that we’ve kept our heads in the sand about. Thankfully, Elisa Winter is here to vindicate the confusion in our alien relationship with reality and each other.

Elisa Winter’s latest album, Summer and Smoke, is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

OneNamedPeter explores the pleasure-pain connection in his artful cosmic pop single, Hurts

Posted on 4 March 2022

Ahead of the release of his fifth 100% DIY album, Hurts, the alt-indie British singer-songwriter, OneNamedPeter, has given us a teaser by letting us taste the cosmic pop textures in the bitter-sweet title single.

If you took Prince’s solos, Elliott Smith’s raw songwriting style, the dreamy chamber pop style of Daughter, the spacey gravity of Bowie and threw them into an aural cocktail with orchestral motifs to boot, it would pour just like the intoxicating soundscape, Hurts.

Nothing about the high-fidelity production feels less than professional. OneNamedPeter knows just how to conjure enough alchemy to wrap around his lyricism that explores the pleasure and pain connection.

Hurts is one of those tragically rare releases that you immediately know you’ll want to dive into time and time again. We’re stoked to hear how the LP ensues after the title-single set such a blissful and accordant tone.

Hurts will officially release on March 4th, 2022. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Go into the wild with Joseph Lothian’s chamber pop release, Glacial and Spa

Posted on 23 February 2022

The South London songwriter and writer, Joseph Lothian, has recently released his sophomore album, which is a continuation of the wild and verdant chamber pop soundscapes in his 2020 debut album, Wilderness Music.

Wilderness Music Continued (Rain, Fire), is a meditatively artful infusion of electronic folk, indie and alt-pop which focuses on the act of songwriting, with a view to how it creates comfort and value in otherwise inhospitable environments. It’s hard to argue with that sentiment. Without the icons that have defined the culture in the UK, how disparate would our streets feel? How many outliers would know nothing of experimental expression or know how it feels to find their mindset tribe?

The standout single, Glacial and Spa, is just as evocative as an Angel Olsen release with the vibrato on the vocal. Yet, within the lush textures of the chamber pop single, there’s a nuanced reminder of our roots and the fact that we were never really supposed to endure post-industrialised isolation.

Joseph Lothian’s sophomore album is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Fall into Crawford Mack’s Hauntingly Poetic Chamber Pop Single ‘The Art of Losing You’

Posted on 24 March 2021

Following on from the success of their debut album, ‘Bread & Circuses’, Glasgow-hailing, London-residing alternative artist, Crawford Mack has lavished the airwaves with their chamber pop single, ‘The Art of Losing You’.

With hauntingly poetic lyrics falling into the smoothly sparse production which teases nuances of jazz and folk, Crawford Mack exhibits an inimitable style, but more importantly, he doesn’t fail to appeal to the softer and more sentimental side of the human condition. Any fans of Father John Misty, Benjamin Clementine and Gabriel Kahane will want to delve in.

The single marks a new chapter for Crawford Mack who has shared stages with the likes of The Paper Kites, Damien Dempsey and Tom Walker. It’s a page-turner. Get him on your radar.

The Art of Losing You is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Chamber Pop that illuminates: Heren Wolf’s ‘Far’ is a spectacular song filled with warmth

Posted on 13 November 2020
https://soundcloud.com/herenwolf/far/s-kF7bBSTDHYa

Chamber Pop that illuminates: Heren Wolf’s ‘Far‘ is a spectacular song filled with warmth and deep energies that filters into our hearts.

Heren Wolf is an Italian pop singer-songwriter based in London who has a voice that pieces through you, you can feel the raw beautif and how incredibly well this song has been constructed.

‘The imagery of the‘womb’, representing the safe and primordial place, in which pain hasn’t yet left its mark.’- Heren Wolf

With a soothing start that has stunning piano riffs that are so touching and encapsulates how safe the world should be. After making a fresh move to London, this is all about a new times. Taking the time to heal from all that happened in the past is key, moving on is even better as it enables you to start again. New friends and new memories.

Heren Wolf’s ‘Far‘ is such a masterpiece, the layers here are so magnificently meshed together and you can’t help but appreciate this new song. Music like this doesn’t appear all the time and this is a track that needs to be hear and played to get that extra bit of beauty back in our lives.

Click here for the Soundcloud page.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Luis Mojica – Queen Song: Gothic Indie Baroque Aural Alchemy

Posted on 19 December 2019
https://luismojica.bandcamp.com/track/queen-song

“Queen Song” is the latest tribally artful Chamber Pop single from New York artist Luis Mojica which finds the perfect balance of optimism and dark ominous allure.

Their avant-garde style introduces classical elements to a new era of gothic indie baroque aural alchemy to which you’re guaranteed to have never heard the like of before. While there’s plenty of disconcertment lingering in between the notes of Queen Song, the accessibility definitely wasn’t compromised.

Queen song is uniquely captivating and it is sure to appeal to anyone looking for artfully dark tonality, deep reverberant vocals, and imaginatively inventive lyrics. With their piano-led experimentalism, reminiscences can easily be found between Luis Mojica’s style and that of Amanda Palmer. Yet, with the darker elements, there are plenty of  increments to appease fans of Apocalyptica

Queen Song is now available to stream and download via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ala Ghawas – Red: Virtuosic Chamber Pop

Posted on 3 December 2019
https://soundcloud.com/alaghawas/red

Every now and again, I get a stark reminder of just how powerful a soundscape can be. The most recent single to leave me floored was the stunningly composed piano-led Folk Blues single “Red” from Bahrain-based artist Ala Ghawas.

There may be waves of melancholia in the poised melodic ebbs and flows which are more than capable of pulling you under. But there’s plenty of comfort to be found in the sublime pensive semi-orchestral arrangement along with Ala Ghawas’s magnetically warm vocals joined by ethereal choir backing vocals

Any fans of Nick Cave, Tom Waits, Nadine Shah are definitely going to want to check out Red along with the other virtuosic singles released by the deftly talented artist.

You can check out Ala Ghawas’s recently released single Red for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast