Lucy Kitchen
From the opening notes, Sun to My Moon, Lucy Kitchen’s second studio album, takes you on a journey spanning from fragile stripped back confessionals to Americana, to psychedelic-tinged harmony laden anthems. Featuring a more expansive sound than her previous offerings with full band on a number of songs, plus piano, pedal steel, Hammond and lush strings, Sun to My Moon was recorded mostly at Valley Studios and mastered to tape at Tilehouse Studios. The naturally raw sound is big, yet also intimate – and paints an emotive picture.
In the search for touchstones Lucy is often compared to the likes of Joni Mitchell, Beth Orton and, vocally, to Sandy Denny – ‘Lucy’s vocal tone has hints of the late Sandy Denny in it – a rare and precious thing indeed’ (bestnewbands.com), but her sound is all her own.
Sun to My Moon opens with the track of the same name, a call for a lover ‘Sun to my moon, rain in my sea, I called out for you, the wind carried you to me’, followed by the crashing, swirling emotion of ‘Searching for Land’. ‘Lovers in Blue’ features stunning strings, and the ethereal ‘Summer Queen’ builds from delicate piano and acoustic guitar to full band and back again. She says of the album “There’s a theme of loss but how, within that, love somehow pulls us through. There’s also I guess for me the vibe that I veer towards the moon – the darker, questioning side and a lot of the songs on the album have come out of a hard couple of years personally but also within that amazing things have happened as a result.”
Since her last album, Waking, Lucy has been in demand as a vocalist, working with a number of electronic music acts to write and record songs that have been championed by the likes of BBC Radio 1 and Mixmag. She’s also performed on the John Peel Stage at Glastonbury festival.
“Lucy Kitchen has one of those real summer breeze voices, fresh and warm, and it’s very much to the fore on her second album that contains a myriad of delights. And she’s opened up her musical palette here with piano, steel pedal and strings all featured on a release in which she also brings in elements of Americana and lightly toasted psychedelia. But it’s the quality of her songwriting that clinches the deal here, that and her emotive voice which grabs you right there.” (The Crack Magazine)
Sun To My Moon will be released on the 22nd September on Bohemia Rose Records.