Into Music Review: Still Life, Sweetheart by Liz Lochhead & Andrew Wasylyk

Artist: Liz Lochhead & Andrew Wasylyk
EP: Still Life, Sweetheart
Label: Blackford Hill 

Battling through the inclement Scottish weather and following a series of ferry cancellations, Liz Lochhead and Andrew Wasylyk descended upon An Tobar, Tobermory’s creative and cultural epicentre early in 2020. Ensconced in the studio along with producer Gordon MacLean they embarked on a meandering adventure into the unknown which has resulted in the release of new music in the shape of Still Life, Sweetheart.

The 5 track EP marks the second collaboration between the two, following The Light Comes Back album released in 2016 and brings together the collective influence of Lochhead’s tender, airy vocals which are the perfect foil for Wasylyk’s gentle and warm piano playing.

Listening to the tunes, it feels like being on a journey, a journey of new beginnings though at the same time of something familiar yet almost out of reach. Wasylyk’s spatial arrangements on the ivories coalesce with Lochhead’s beguiling, hushed lyric on Nina’s Song, capturing perfectly the innocence of the track.

Lochhead is of course a former Scots Makar and an established playwright who has previously collaborated with the likes of Michael Marra and Hector Bizerk while Wasylyk is an established solo artist and with the band The Hazey Janes.

Still Life, Sweetheart by Liz Lochhead & Andrew Wasylyk is out now and available to buy here.

John Welsh
@welshjb

Links:
@A_Wasylyk
@blackford_hill
@Comar_Arts