We are overjoyed to premiere Sydney group Juno Point‘s release ‘Nazare’, the first single from their debut album ‘Lost Along A River’, due for release on 12 February 12 2024. This band is another prime example of The Marrickville Sound – veteran musicians from successful bands from the eighties and nineties getting together to create new magical sounds and proving my old adage that creativity has no use-by date (copyrighted of course!). Juno Point contain members of Ukiyo-e, The Cannanes, El Mopa and Tweezer- all familiar bands from the antipodean indie music scene.
‘Nazare’ positively floats across the sky with a reflective ambience and sparkling, shimmering guitars that flow with a yearning tone. When the vocals kick in, they have a delicate profundity that recalls The National, expressing beautiful lyrical poetry while a slide guitar etches weeping notes in the distance. Hints of the late great David Berman (Silver Jews), The Go-Betweens and The Chills echo in the distance.
Guitarist and singer Steve Foster explains, the song’s sense of weightless motion parallels its theme of the oceanic swell of its waves.
‘Nazare’ is the world’s biggest rideable wave. I’ve dreamt of waves my whole life. They rise up in front of me and I sink beneath as a huge volume of water passes above me. I remember reading years ago that they were symbols for emotional upheaval. I always find the dreams serene.
Indeed there is a mesmerising aquatic flow to the track, imbued with an air of melancholy that is wrapped around the gently piano that wanders in the background.
This is delicious and refreshing music, studied and elegant:
‘Nazare’ is out tomorrow via the link above and through all the usual download and streaming sites. It comes ahead of a full LP ‘Lost Along A River’, due out on 12 February 2024.
Foster says of the band’s evocative name:
We’re all tied to the water… Juno Point is a landmark in the Hawkesbury that I love – the last place the river turns toward the sea.
The aquatic theme carries on into the album. Foster explains how the name of the album, ‘Lost Along A River’, ties into the name of the band. It’s a great example of the holistic nature of Juno Point, their name and the album title, the sonic democracy of each instrument’s place in the songs, the aquatic theme of ‘Nazare’ and the floods of ‘A Little Rain’ and singer/guitarist Nik Devenish’s description of his words as swimming in a pond of ambiguity.
‘Lost Along A River’ was recorded at the esteemed Damien Gerard Studios in Gosford (where Steve Kilbey and The Church are often found). Foster says:
It’s a fantastic studio and it has an amazing collection of microphones I was pretty excited to use. It has a big live space that allowed us to use the live acoustics of the room as an important part of the sound of the record.
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