I don’t know how she found me through the modern means of communication (a.k.a. Facebook) but Kent’s Evi Vine is a startling talent. Technically not a new artist: to date, Evi had released one solo 4 track EP Human Remains – a dark, sparse home demo which has sold out of its limited run. Back in 2008 Evi wrote for Eden House (with ex-Fields of the Nephilim members), releasing the album Smoke and Mirrors which they toured extensively through Europe.
Evi’s recently released debut album …and so the morning comes has been pieced together over the last three to four years, of experimentation when the mood took her to pick up an instrument or commit a note to tape. And this kind of unhurried production style has genuinely benefitted her new recordings. Tender and starkly emotional, Vine’s long player is a startlingly personal collection of slow-burning songs that’s eiry stripped back soundscapes house reveal a genuinely bruised heart.
An album of shifting grounds thus these pieces sway between the almost post rock soundscapes of ‘The Dreamers’ that edges from miminalist atmospherics into surges of the shivering midnight introspection in its final minutes. To ‘Down’ where Evi’s hushed vunerable voice is laid bare over a parred back arrangement of skeletal guitar and brushing instrumentation.
Colours of the Night is a spellbinding highlight featuring Florence and the Machine Harpist Tom Moth who plucks out a path for Evi’s heart stopping vocals. This combination puts one in mind of the best work of Joanna Newsome as Vine quiveringly vocalises a stark internal dialogue of loss: a theme that permiates the entire album. Her voice floating effortlessly into piercing high notes of extreme poigniant heartbreak. Simply gorgeous. Eslewhere songs like ‘Kiss’ and ‘In This Moment’ with their elegant majesty and stripped back arrangements remind one of the latter works of Kate Bush or Tori Amos. But still retain a individual honesty, poetic imagery and startlingly affecting vocals that would melt even the coldest hearts.
In a sea of sometimes over hyped female singers Evi Vine is one rare talent to take note of, sit back put your headphones on and let her sing you you to into the early hours with a diary of heartbreak. You won’t regret it.
Evi Vine plays a handful of dates accross the country this Summer:
31st of May Nice Weather for Airstrikes Festival, Brighton
17th June – BBC Devon Morning Show
18th June – Beachbreak Live Festival
14th August – Crossaint Neuf Festival
