We seem to have written quite frequently recently about artists heading off on trips / self discovery tours to inspire themselves and write music. Maybe almost too much.
Swedish artist Luminous Kid has really made it worthwhile, however, with a 6 month trip to different countries, including South America, where he was influenced by not only the ‘realist’ artists that he met, but by 'discovering what it was like for him to be queer in a catholic country.'
He returned with a ‘’torn 30 USD guitar’ and 20 new songs, and the 1st of those to be released is his debut ‘'The Gutter of Our Ecstasy'’, a gorgeous bedroom indie pop track that I liked when I first heard it, and which has continued to grow on me ever since.
It’s a remarkable debut too for an artist who has previously expressed himself through photographic visual art, successfully working on a number of projects with artists such as Phoebe Bridgers, and exhibiting twice at the Swedish Museum of Photography.
The 1st thing to note about ‘'The Gutter of Our Ecstasy'’ is that Luminous Kid has made no attempt to conform to the demands of a 3 minute radio friendly pop track, at well over 6 minutes he instead asks to immerse ourselves in the story - based around a 3 week love affair in Paris. And it works so well. The song is constructed around the softest of acoustic guitars, and the accompanied instrumentation is delicately and subtly infused, never wishing to intrude. In fact it’s all in perfect equilibrium.
The powerful video matches the song perfectly too, filmed with a simple Super 8 camera. The imagery is clearly going to be key to the Luminous Kid project, as the artist explains.
''I want my music, lyrics and visual material to expand and complete one another. I’m planning on releasing a photo book alongside the Vinyl version of the album to make both medias more tangible. I want to create a complete body of queer art packaged in its own project.”
Not the first artist to try a project like this, but with his background it should be really interesting.
You can find him on Instagram.