New Music Friday #1: Sona Koloyan takes dissociative flight with 'In The Air'
I take a look at the best releases this week.
As the world gets stranger and stranger, I’m finally taking the leap into the world of writing - one that, honestly? terrifies me more than making music.
I find so much joy in discovering new music, and as an artist myself, I know how hard it is to release music into a sea of online over-stimulation.
If I can add a drop of joy into the ocean of art, and let artists know how much I appreciate their work through the way I communicate best (writing), it’s time I did!
Alas, ‘Blue Bucket Of Gold’ is born.
Welcome to my new blog. Weekly New Music Fridays for new releases, monthly Deep Dives into the amazing stories behind it and occasional Archives into historical moments that shook the music world. Feel free to subscribe, for free or paid.
Now, it’s time for the best music released this week.
Singles:
Sona Koloyan - In The Air
Independent Armenian musician Sona uses strings, ascending then descending like the path of a dissociative flight, gut-wrenching lyrics and three powerful chords to create one of the most emotive songs of the year. “Everything I have is on loan”, she sings over and over, like a mantra for the ephemeral, or a pleading prayer. Exploring the feeling of being nowhere and owning nothing, Sona lived in London while watching as her country was devastated by war, creating music about her state of disconnection that, ironically, instantly connects.
Piglet - building site outside
The latest signing of Blue Flowers, owned by PIAS (Play It Again Sam), Irish songwriter Piglet croons about what sounds like an unrequited love upon first listen, but really documents real-name Charlie Loane’s experience of transphobia from a pharmacist he previously laughed with - “she wouldn’t even meet my eye, she smiled at me so much last time”. Piglet’s diaristic lyrics, written after receiving a prescription for gender affirming hormones, are the mark of a true artist. Reminiscent of the vulnerability of Frightened Rabbit and anthemic arrangements of Death Cab For Cutie, Piglet carries the torch forward.
Albums:
Lana Del Rey - Did You Know There’s A Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd
Well, somebody got a moog for Christmas. Penned over ten years ago as “going to one day be the cover of Rolling Stone”, this year, Lana finally graced its front page. Opening the album with “should I do a dance for once?”, Lana humorously quips against her critics, proving once and for all that she can go anywhere she wants, and do anything she wants. A writer in a musician’s body, she enlisted producer Jack Antonoff to sprinkle cinematic music around her diaristic confessions into an iPhone, as Mike Hermosa, a cameraman and soon-to-be-musician, absent-mindedly played guitar licks then apprehensively ended up in a studio recording for her.
Lucinda Chua - YIAN
FKA twigs’s cellist during the Magdalene era, I first heard of Lucinda in Dalston Square, collaborating with CY AN and performing alongside Nabihah Iqbal. Experimental cello flooded the plaza as bystanders stopped dead, transported somewhere else entirely. The composer learned music from the age of three using the ‘Suzuki method’, primarily rooted in ear-training as opposed to notation-learning, securing her no future in the classical world. This album explores her experiences as a child of the Chinese diaspora. Her whispering voice reminds me of Lightning Bug’s vocalist, Audrey Kang, and her compositions have that flowing, innate capability only ear-training allows.