Category: Chamber Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Copenhagen’s Homesickness Shares Brooding and heartbreaking “Asunder”

Led by Mathe Junge (vocals, guitar), the acclaimed Copenhagen-based experimental chamber folk septet Homesickness has been raised for a “gorgeous and wild” sound that draws from a diverse array of influences including Laurel Canyon folk, British folk, Laughing Stock-era Talk Talk and contemporary experimental avant-garde folk, as well as the tranquility and expansive beauty of nature.

Crafting lush and elaborate arrangements anchored around instrumentation like violin, cello, woodwinds, bells and guitar, the Danish outfit’s material lyrically focuses on deeply personal themes. According to the band’s Junge, the compositions serve as intuitive artistic tools to mirror and stimulate conversations about mental health, spirituality, love and relationships while offering a glimpse into a vulnerable and sometimes almost devotional pursuit of emancipation, where light and love, pain and darkness are unified into a cohesive aesthetic whole.

The Danish folk outfit’s sophomore album Anamnesis is slated for a March 21, 2025 release through Copenhagen-based label Pink Cotton Candy Records. The 10-song album features arrangements that blend spirited ambient flute and string improvisations, ghostly field recordings, vibrant orchestrated folk rock, singer/songwriter folk and avant-garde breakouts. Recorded during the harvest moon of 2023, the album’s material is infused with a sense of cyclical renewal and the natural rhythms of life. According to Junge, the album is more than just a collection of songs, it’s a wish to journey into the heart of our shared humanity and an exploration of the intrinsic and primordial aspects of our being. Ultimately, the album is a call to recognize and embrace the fundamental experiences that bind us together, and to express the kindness and care that naturally flow that recognition.

Anamnesis’ second and latest single “Asunder” is a slow-burning and meditative track that’s one-part chamber pop, one-part cosmic folk, one part-jazz freakout anchored around Junge’s softly whispered plaintive delivery that sonically seems indebted to Nick Drake and contemporaries like Loving.

“Asunder” is a deeply personal song that sees Junge reflecting on the profound impact of the suicides of his stepfather and stepsister with the song capturing the struggle to cope with such massive loss, the burdens of inheritance and more. The song is a heartbreaking farewell, and a reminder of the beauty within the universal experiences of grift and joy that honors the memories and legacies of those who are no longer with us.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ren Harvieu Shares Swooning Baroque Pop Anthem “Black Wig”

Ren Harvieu is an emerging Manchester, UK-based singer/songwriter and producer. Harvieu’s work is inspired by a life altering brush with death when she was 20 — and by the Northern English working class penchant for finding humor within despair.

The Manchester-based artist’s single, the Romeo Stodart and Harvieu co-written and co-produced “Black Wig” is a baroque, chamber pop anthem reminiscent of Kate Bush, Tori Amos, Kishi Bashi and Vanille but anchored in an off-kilter yet swooning arrangement of strings, marxophone, harpsichord and musical saw paired with Harvieu’s ethereal Kate Bush-like delivery.

I could picture Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette twerking to this. But as the emerging Manchester-based artist explains, “‘Black Wig’ is an ambitious baroque pop for all the unhinged out there, who are just far too fabulous and tortured for this world.”

Directed by Romeo Stodart, the accompanying video for “Black Wig” visually plays on the Marie Antoinette vibes of the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Mike Dunne Shares Cinematic “Not Today”

Mike Dunne is a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and composer, with a deep and abiding love of music across a wide array of styles. Late last year, Dunne released the breezy and anthemic Beatles-esque power pop track “These Eyes,” a song that to my ears sounded as though it could have been released between roughly 1968-1972.

He begins 2024 with “Not Today,” a slow-burning and cinematic song featuring some expressive and gorgeous, vaguely Romani-like violin playing paired with strummed acoustic guitar and Dunne’s effortless croon. The result is a song that sounds a bit like a synthesis of the baroque, chamber pop of Scott Walker, The Beatles and Joe Wong.

Dunne explains that the song is a zen story. “A boy in a small village decides he wants to become a monk. He goes to the monastery and knocks on the door,” the singer/songwriter explains. “The monk opens the peephole looks at the boy who asks if he can enter. The monk is livid…’how dare you bother me…go home and never return.’ The boy goes home. Next day he wakes up and still wants to be a monk. He returns to the monastery. Same response…but louder. The boy goes home. He wakes the next morning and decides he still wants to be a monk. He returns to the monastery, the door swings wide open and the monk says, ‘We have waited a long time for you…where have you been?’ This song is about perseverance, dedication, that sense of purpose that guides us. No drama, just focus. If you believe in something don’t give up, don’t give up, not today . . .”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Luminous Wavez Share Brooding Yet Hopeful “Have No Fear”

Transatlantic indie duo Luminous Wavez — British-born artist Leaone (pronounced Lee-own) and Patience Gloria‘s Mike Dobbins — can trace their origins back to the long days and nights of COVID pandemic lockdowns.

Their sophomore EP together, Ashes of the Artists features Dobbins penned lyrics informed by binge listening sessions of Johnny Cash, Chris Cornell, Leonard Cohen, and Nick Cave and demonstrate the hard-won maturity from lived-in experience. This is paired with Leaone’s haunting baritone delivery and remarkable knack for catchy melodies.

Ashes of the Artist EP‘s latest single, “Have No Fear” is a Nick Cave meets The National-like track built around a hauntingly sparse and cinematic arrangement of sharply arpeggiated strings, strummed acoustic guitar and dramatic, padded drumming paired with Leanoe’s brooding baritone. Interestingly, “Have No Fear” may arguably be the most hopeful song on the EP as it features a narrator, who manages to persevere in the face of a variety of obstacles.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Saint Kochi’s Cinematic and Trippy “Almost Lost”

Born in London to parents, who immigrated from India and Kenya, the rising British chamber pop/psych pop artist Saint Kochi has led an extraordinary and unusual life, that for a while got in the way of his real lifetime aim — to make music his entire life, not a part of it. But there was so much else that occupied his time: a flirtation with genuine stardom as a professional cricket player, parents who doubted hat anyone could survive with a career in the arts, and an unexpected career as a seller of massive ships.

Saint Kochi continued to push forward with his lifelong dream of making music, releasing last year’s self-titled debut EP. Slated for an August 10, 2022 release, the British chamber pop and psych pop artist’s Dom Ganderton co-produced sophomore EP Almost Lost is reportedly a bold step forward as he crafts gorgeous music that transports the listener to another place.

The EP’s first single, the cinematic EP title track “Almost Lost” prominently features a throbbing bass line, twinkling keys, glistening, reverb-drenched guitar lines and Saint Kochi’s plaintive vocals paired with a gorgeous, soaring string arrangement. Sonically, the result is a song that to my ears brings The Beatles, Scott Walker, The Verve, and JOVM mainstays POND to mind — but while possessing an enormous sound, the song is rooted in intimate and lived-in lyricism that’s personal yet universal.

While primarily recorded at Saint Kochi’s purpose-built basement studio, the string arrangement performed by the 14-piece string section was recorded at RAK Studios, where iconic albums like Radiohead‘s The Bends and a lengthy list of others was recorded. The string section fulfilled the rising British artist’s ambition of “making a record that had these big cinematic James Bond, Beatleseque type of strings on them.”

Directed by Sam Hiscox, the accompanying video for “Almost Lost” is as cinematic as the song while employing a rather simple concept: We follow Saint Kochi in a white linen suit wandering the desert, alone and seemingly lost.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

The People Versus is an Oxford, UK-based chamber pop quintet — currently comprised of Alice, Benedict, Danny, Jack and Sean — that can trace its origins to a spontaneously combination of each of its members previous collaborations and projects. Essentially, the project features four singer/songwriters and former lead singers, whose combined vocals and instrumental parts form a perfect vehicle for their lead singer, Alice’s vocals.

Interestingly, while centered on narrative songwriting, the band’s material thematically focuses on love, loss and dreams while drawing from Greek myths and Shakespeare. The up-and-coming British act’s latest single, the hauntingly gorgeous “Ground Opening” features Alice’s beguiling vocals, a shimmering arrangement of acoustic guitar, soaring strings,  a stunning multi-part harmony and a rousing hook that gives the song a cinematic air. To my ears, their latest single reminds me quite a bit of The Cranberries‘ smash hit “Linger” but with a folksy yet classical leaning. As the band explains, the song is a re-telling of the ancient Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, which explains the turn of the seasons but while touching upon love and power dynamics in romantic relationships.