On her debut album, Lucy Gooch stays true to her electronic foundations, while incorporating more acoustic instrumentation and digging deeper into her folk roots through songwriting. But at the heart of Lucy’s music is her rapturous vocal, with which she has experimented more than ever over the course of her first full-length.
‘Like Clay’ the album’s first single, is a sprawling song that echoes her earlier work. Taking inspiration from observing curlews and exploring Northumberland’s castles, Lucy brings a playfulness to her songwriting and vocals alongside improvised layers looped over a recurring guitar and bass pattern. “It came together simply and is the song that flows the most naturally” adds Gooch.
Lucy Gooch began releasing music with her acclaimed use of vocal layering on the debut ‘Rushing’ EP and the following ‘Rain’s Break’ EP; this genre-traversing collection of songs established her as rising new artist in 2021 with performances at Glastonbury, SXSW and Rewire. Following this flurry of activity, she experienced change and upheaval, whilst working on what would become her debut; moving from Bristol to Norwich before finally settling in York.
Many of the pieces on ‘Desert Window’ started out as vocal improvisations from which she pulled a narrative. Taking cues from the incantatory chanting found in middle English poetry such as ‘The Names of the Hare’, as well as the prescient imagery in contemporary works like ‘The Hearing Trumpet’ by Leonora Carrington (1974). “To a larger extent, this became an experiment in placing my voice in a more narrative way, while remaining oblique,” Gooch explains.
While her previous work could be compared to drawn-out landscapes punctuated with moments of romance and radiance, this album feels grounded in materiality and the everyday. These eight songs are deceptively obtuse, her vocals wandering the space between the conscious and the subconscious, between control and expression. The result is an atmospheric balance between Kate Bush and Cocteau Twins harmonies, Vangelis major chords, and a juxtaposition of folk ambience reminiscent of the offset madrigals of The Third Ear Band and Italian cult film composers Goblin.
‘Desert Window’ is a complex and elegant album, an all-consuming series of songs that reach into jazz, electronica and classical song construction.
Lucy will be performing a number of select live shows this Spring across the UK with Alabaster DePlume and an intimate headline show at Dalston’s Servant Jazz Quarter’s in East London on 12th June.
“A lush synth-driven dreamscape that engulfs you in near-cinematic rises.” Louder Than War
‘Desert Window’ is out 6th June, available for pre-order in Limited Edition White Vinyl, Limited Edition ‘Indies Exclusive’ Marble Vinyl. Orders from select record stores include signed lyric/art print.
“An unusually developed aesthetic vision, one that joins the atmospheric quality of ambient music with the structure of choral composition and effortlessness pop.”
PITCHFORK
“Gooch’s voice is rich and angelic, matching the timbre of the lush surrounding instrumentation.”
BANDCAMP
UK LIVE DATES
29 Apr: Norwich Arts Centre, Norwich, UK*
30 Apr: Brudenell Social Club, Leeds, UK*
01 May: Gosforth Civic Theatre, Newcastle, UK*
02 May: Mono, Glasgow, UK*
03 May: Gorilla, Manchester, UK*
06 May: Trinity, Bristol, UK*
07 May: Phoenix, Exeter, UK*
08 May: Papillon, Southampton, UK*
10 May: Concorde2, Brighton, UK*
12 Jun: Servant Jazz Quarters, London, UK
*w/ Alabaster DePlume
