The Breakdown
Brisbane artist Ash Lune has released a couple of highly impressive singles over the last year and it has culminated in the release of ‘Broken Science Experiments’: a vibrant collection of deeply personal treatises to personal vulnerability, inner strength and resilience that showcase her deliciously velvet vocals that drip with a yearning melancholia. Lune says of the EP:
When I was writing this EP , I felt an excruciating amount of pressure to introduce and define myself with this project. As I kept writing I realised that you can’t let a piece of art define you, even if it’s your own. Since change is inevitable, your art will change with you. It was easier to be honest and vulnerable after that. By the end of the EP I realised I was at yet another beginning. All I can say is, this is only one beginning.
Opening track ‘I’ll See You Tomorrow’ is a quiet and reflective start with Lune’s vocals to the fore: raw and exposed and achingly beautiful.
With dappling guitars and sweeping, weeping strings, second track ‘Panic at the Party’ is a dreamy, euphoric delight. Lune’s voice has an immersive, ethereal timbre that literally floats above the music, filled with longing, melancholy and melody. Lune has a wry observant style that captures the awkwardness of social interactions and the anxieties of engagement. Lune says of the track:
‘Panic at the Party’ is really about social anxiety. You’d think “Well if you don’t like parties, don’t go parties”. I love parties because I don’t like being alone, so that makes me social. However, I hate parties because I get anxious about every single thing I say or do in a social scenario. There’s always at least one moment during a party when I’ll look around and realise that if the lights were on we’d all look like idiots intoxicating ourselves into a temporary bubble. In that moment the weight of the world comes back, the bubbles breaks, and everything goes south.
With a shimmering layers of instruments, Lune’s vocals exhibit an extraordinary range: hypnotic and yearning with a massive anthemic chorus. The accompanying video is a charming beautifully shot depiction of young love in the bright burning sunshine mixed with Lune’s enigmatic performance:
‘Sleepwalk’ continues the dreamy romantic themes: plucked, arpeggiated instruments provide a sweeping fifties feel, dreamy and ethereal.
‘Bombay’ picks up the pace with Lune’s referencing her place of birth with an anthemic and bold melodic sweep in a song about devotion.
In final track ‘Before’ Lune’s voice is yet again magnificent – loaded with yearning and melancholy, evoking soft velvet and dreamy tones over a delicate melody that forms a shimmering filigree on the dappling instruments. Lune says of the poignant inspiration for the track:
It feels like I’ve waited to be happy my whole life. When you reach goals, you just set new ones and then you’re anxious and waiting to be happy again. This song is the realisation that even though I’m living my dream and my circumstances have changed for the better, my brain is still my brain and I’ve been here before. I’ve been in that paralysing mental state before. The scenery is different but the feeling remains.
This sense of anxiety and uncertainty filters through the nuanced delivery: a sense of frailty. The simple accompanying video, directed by Brisbane director Joshua Tate captures this eloquently, an intimate performance piece with reflections and lighting creating a sense of distance and isolation:
‘Broken Science Experiments’ is out now and available to stream and download here.
Feature Photograph: Jamie Heath
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