Today marks the release of the Brudini‘s fourth single ‘Radiant Man‘, taken from his upcoming album. The debut full feature, ‘From Darkness, Light‘, will be released to the world on May 15th. ‘Brudini’ is the stage name of Dalston based Norwegian songwriter Erik Brudvik. Anyone who has been floating around London’s inner bohemian art and literacy scene will recognize Brudvik from his days as co-owner of ‘The Society Club’ (a famed bookshop, cocktail bar and private literary club in Soho). Sadly, due to the astronomically high rents that were set in the area, the club was forced to shut its doors in late 2017.
The boutique venue was a real treasure to the art community but since it’s closing, Erik has shifted his artistic focus to working on this album. It has been in the pipeline for five years now. In recent times, he has has endured a mixed bag of challenging life changes, coupled with a few positive milestones. He quit his long-term career in finance, became a father and experienced the end of his long-term relationship. Its fair to say, lots of big alterations have occurred in the time of penning this emotive album. The music he has compiled for us within it is shaped by these experiences.
His stage name, Brudini, was chosen to represent his sounds. The reasoning behind the name was quite simple. He took the opening few letters of his surname and added a luscious Italian twist on the end to give it an uplifting flavor. This simplistic approach taken to create the alias explains the no-frills way he goes about the construction his music too. There are no flowery, dramatic modern effects on any of his tunes. In fact, Radiant Man, was recorded in a Stoke Newington basement without a click track, relying on only analogue instruments. Brudini does things his way – in a simple, throwback and old-school kind of way. I like it.
Radiant Man
The single opens with some carefully caressed acoustic guitar chords. Brudvik’s vocals arrive into the fray soon after. His vocal garners a similarly gravelly style to that of Kristian Matsson’s (The Tallest Man on Earth), smokey retro tone. The track progresses in an uplifting manner with the introduction of Dorin Bayhon (Drums) and Casper Hoedemaekers’s double-bass plucking away intently. The powerfully crisp piano melodies knit the whole composition together. The instruments convey an uplifting message but as the song closes with the line, ‘Your eyes light up the sky’, some eerie creaking sounds close it out implying darkness is on the way. It is certainly another well executed taster of whats to come on May 15th.
They are my rambling words, lets hear some topical and relevant words from the man himself:
“Radiant Man is the tale of a person fighting against a tidal wave. Obviously I had never imagined how the metaphor could translate at the time of its release. My thoughts go to all the nurses, doctors and health workers who are out there on the front line for us. In a political age where both science and compassion seemed on the backfoot, they come forward as the real heroes.”
The Album
Having listened to the album itself from start to finish earlier, I found myself drifting into a state of trance. It’s clearly a very stressful time for everyone right now and this album had a nice therapeutic effect on me actually. It features the soothing spoken words of Californian poet Chip Martin on quite a number of the tracks. As he recites his well-crafted words, Brudvik’s rustic, non-intrusive, instrumentation accompanies each piece to effectively raise the poignancy levels. I wasn’t expecting this kind of beauty.
The hellishly relaxing poetic soundscapes are separated by the rolling rhythms of a remastered ‘Nightcrawer‘ and ‘Emotional Outlaw‘. These tracks create a sense of urgency and tenacity. The continuity between each track makes the project interesting on the ear throughout. The album flows nicely from one song to the next.
This is a clever bank of work and it is evident that a rigorous amount of thought went into into it’s conception. It’s been a while since I listened to an album all the way through, it’s tough to find the time and will. I’m glad I took the time today and gave Brudini’s From Darkness, Light, a thorough listen. Nice work.
The album will be released on May 15th
Check out ‘Radiant Man‘ by Brudini, below.
Find everything else you need to know about Brudini on his Facebook page here.
Check out this week’s interview with the superb Billy Nomates here.
I caught up with New York’s Ollie Chanin last week. He is fresh off a collaboration with Eminem. If you still have some reading left in your eyes, check that one here.
About ‘The Sound Sniffer’
The Sound Sniffer is a music blog which is still only a baby – Founded and run by Kevin Coakley in early 2019. He is a music writer and ghostwriter. ‘The Sound Sniffer’ has also run showcases in London since Oct 2019. The showcases are picked from artists we find in our submissions inbox.
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