As we enter August and the early harvest of late Summer, a beautiful new single “Icon”, from Adelaide artist Jen Lush enters with incredible vocals across delicate guitars and ethereal soundscapes. It’s the perfect antidote to our frantic world.
On Amrap Airit, and all streaming platforms. “Icon” is the Jen’s second single and offers another glimpse into her forthcoming album ‘Hum Of The Mettle.’ Showcasing delicate layered acoustic and electric guitars, percussion, drums and celestial keyboards, all surrounding the evocative words of award-winning poet, lyricist and librettist Maria Zajkowski.
The lyrics are an excerpt from her most recent book of poetry, “Icon”. Of this book she writes “My father, Eugienuisz Zajkowski, had a hard, miraculous and normal life. He never intended to be an icon. This collection preserves some of what I lost to his Alzheimer’s. And then, what I lost when he died. In writing the music, I wanted to capture something of the delicacy and sadness that surges with the words, but held within a lighter melodic treatment that by contrast makes the song all the more poignant. These shifts between the quiet acoustic guitar and the swelling of the surrounding instrumentation, the upward, lilting vocal melody with the darker poetry, the percussive elements against a sustained bed of keyboard sounds, this is folk pop laced with the bittersweet.”
Band Jen Lush (vocals), Sam Cagney (acoustic guitar), Mark Seddon (Bass guitar), Paul Angas (drums/percussion/keys), James Brown (electric guitar)
Recorded at Wizard Tone Studios, produced, recorded and mixed by James Brown. Mastered by Michael Lynch at Shoehorse Sound. Video by Tobin
Jen Lush bio
Adelaide singer-songwriter Jen Lush is known for her dynamic, intimate and adventurous new music. With influences ranging from Feist, Iron & Wine and Anais Mitchell, these are tender folk songs flung into evocative, experimental rock infused soundscapes with storytelling at the centre. From her decade with folk band Cat Dog Bird to her debut solo album of poem songs ‘The Night’s Insomnia’ Jen and her stellar band have appeared at festivals and venues throughout SA, Victoria, NSW, WA and Tasmania.
In 2021 Jen released her album ‘Let Loose The Beating Birds’, a commentary on motherhood, suburban life and the broader environmental and political landscape of our current times. Reaching #11 on Three D’s top 100+1 for 2021, and winner of the ARBA Roots Album of the Year (2021), ‘LLTBB’ has received generous airplay across Australia, releasing five singles with videos, and performing to sell-out crowds.
Jen’s new album of songs ‘Hum of the Mettle’ crafted from contemporary Australian poetry, commissioned for the Denmark Festival of Voice (WA) is due for release in August 2023.
