Vashti Bunyan announces new album Heartleap, steals Linda Perhacs’ thunder

Vashti Bunyan announces new album Heartleap, steals Linda Perhacs' thunder

Does the word naturalismo mean anything to you? In that case, you might recall the halcyon days of 2004, when all it took to bring an overlooked artist back to the spotlight after decades in the wilderness was the goodwill (or perhaps the whims?) of the blogosphere. No feature-length documentary was needed to rescue Vashti Bunyan from oblivion. Regarded as the Godmother of New Weird America/freak folk/naturalismo — a “scene” loosely held together thanks to blog posts and the commendable Arthur Magazine during the first half of the past decade — she released the pastoral folk gem Another Diamond Day in 1970 to very little commercial interest. Disappointed, Bunyan left the music industry and essentially became a mother for the next three decades. With her album gaining cult status, and fans like Devendra Banhart, Animal Collective, Piano Magic, and Joanna Newsom citing her as an influence, she finally found her way back to professional musicianship in 2005, with her second album Lookaftering.

Now, possibly swiping some of Linda Perhacs’ thunder (this was meant to be her “folk legend returns from oblivion” year, until an accident sidetracked her plans), Bunyan has announced a new album for October, Heartleap, her first in roughly nine years. Since her return in 2005, Bunyan has issued a compilation of outtakes and demos (2007’s Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind) and even had a documentary — I know! — devoted to her (From Here to Before). She’s also played a handful of shows over the years, but with everyone more or less accepting we had moved on to the next comeback story, no one expected new music from her.

Unlike her previous two albums, where Joe Boyd, Robert Kirby, or Max Richter took care of production and arrangements, this time Bunyan is responsible for all the recording duties, which mostly took place in her own studio. It will be interesting to hear the British singer’s music in such a setting, considering how star-studded her comeback album was. She has also set up a short tour of the UK to accompany the release.

Heartleap is out on October 6/7, depending on which side of the Atlantic you’re on.

Tour dates:

10.07.14 - Birmingham, UK - MAC
10.08.14 - London, UK - St. Pancras Church
10.09.14 - London, UK - St. Pancras Church
10.11.14 - Farndale, UK - The Band Room
10.12.14 - Manchester, UK - St. Philip’s Church

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