Lookaftering

Vashti Bunyan

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 2005)
• Original Release Date: October 25, 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Dicristina Stair
• ASIN: B000B5S826
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #66,181 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Slate, October 25, 2005

...offers many of the charms of her debut...still hushed and otherworldly; her voice still airily affecting...

Product Description

It's not often you come across an artist you can genuinely refer to as a "cult legend," but Vashti Bunyan is truly that. A full thirty-five years after her only previous album, the singer returns with a new solo work, her first in all these years, and it is a breathtakingly beautiful album.

Produced by fellow Edinburgh resident Max Richter (who has a wonderful solo album of his own, Blue Notebooks), and co-arranged with Bunyan, it's a rich, beautifully arranged and stirring album. Developing gradually and organically -- with work initially taking place between Richter and Bunyan's homes, and then at various studios in Edinburgh, London and Glasgow -- Lookaftering is anchored around Bunyan's voice and picked acoustic guitar, Richter's piano playing and arranging. Its instrumentation includes a string quartet, oboe, harp, French horn, and recorder, flute, hammer dulcimer, glasses, harmonium, and Rhodes piano, and it features contributions from Joanna Newsom, Devendra Banhart, Adem, Adam Pierce (Mice Parade), Robert Kirby (Nick Drake), Otto Hauser and Kevin Barker (Espers, Currituck County)

As well as a neat balance between gentle, sparse songs and heavier, more orchestrated numbers, there is a beautiful play between the lush instrumental arrangements and the incredibly intimate, in-your-ear presence of Bunyan's voice. There's a real honesty to the album -- from the fragile intimacy of the vocal itself to the stories that it weaves. Just as JADD was a very pure document of a journey, Lookaftering is similarly based on stories taken directly from lived experience (the death of a brother; the joys and fears of motherhood; the tension between freedom and commitment; and travel versus domesticity). There's also a great integrity forged from the cohesiveness between lyrical content and musical form (the gentle rolling and pitching of the melodies on "Same But Different"; the vocal roundelay on "Here Before"; the ice-shiver of dulcimer on "Turning Backs"). The album title itself, a personal neologism that describes the role of "taking care of someone -- human or animal -- or even something that needs to be done, that needs lookaftering."

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Legend of Vashti Returns, October 28, 2005

By	Juan Mobili (Valley Cottage, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Back in the mid-Sixties, after quitting art school to pursue music, Vashti met Andrew Loog Oldham and recorded a single -written by Jagger/Richards of all people- for Decca. Although reviews compare Marianne Faithful' and even went as far as labeling her a "female Bob Dylan," sales were minimal and Decca decided not to invest on releasing further material.

The story goes that Bunyan, dejected by the experience, bought a horse and cart and set off for a commune that Donovan founded on the Isle of Skye. Although she was not to remain there long, that experience gave birth to the core material that would become "Just Another Diamond Day," backed by members of Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention, and produced by Joe Boyd.

Once again, success eluded her -critics, even the ones who praised it, did not pay for their copy- and this time was off to Ireland, to live life a life away from music and raise a family.

Thirty-five years after releasing her debut album, Vashti returns with her new solo work, an album that manages to be faithful to the sound and mood that permeated her 1969 "Just Another Diamond Day", and at the same time, present the work of a mature artist, still pastoral yet it is mature woman speaking. Evocative, even spiritual in a contemplative way.

"Lookaftering" was co-produced with Max Richter, who also co-wrote the arrangements. Wisely anchored around Vashti's voice, acoustic guitar and Richter's these songs just fall down like fine rain over you, such is the subtlety of their touch.

At different times accompanied by Joanna Newsom, Kevin Barker from Espers, ex-Four Tet's Adem, and Devendra Banhart, Bunyan weaves the tales of what Adrienne Rich has called a "difficult, ordinary happiness," songs of mothering or upon the death of her brother, or joys you stumbled on possibly every day.

Every song has also being thoughtfully arranged, whether the choice is an intimate and sparse sound, require the warmth of an oboe, or a strings quartet. "Same But Different," "Against The Sky," "If I Were," "Wayward" -and also its hummed coda, at the end- or Brother are gems. gems of the quiet kind, music that may take to early sunny mornings by yourself.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars perfect, November 19, 2005

By	svf - See all my reviews

wow... this one exceeded my very high expectations... incredibly beautiful, delicate, elegant songs perfectly arranged and produced (by the amazing Max Richter) with minimal but gorgeous mostly-acoustic accompaniment. I think Vashti even tops her once-forgotten, now classic Just Another Diamond Day here. Only 35 minutes or so, but not a single note is wasted filler here.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the Wait !, November 15, 2005

By	Robert Burns (Tallahassee, Florida United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As you may have noticed, no one has given this release less than 5 stars. I could go on for pages giving the reasons for this but instead I'll just reccomend listening to the audio samples.In a year full of of great new albums, "Lookaftering" shines w/ indescribable beauty. This album may go down in history as being as beloved as "J.A.D.D.".Let's all keep our fingers crossed that it's not another 35 years before Vashti's next.