London based singer/songwriter Laurence Galpin composes sprawling folk rock with undercurrent as Laucan(pronounced Lor-can). Today, Laucan shared the new track “Symptom” from the forthcoming debut full-length LP Frames Per Second that will see release on July 21st through Sunday Best. Under the Radar has the exclusive video. Get caught up in it below.
Early signs are that the bright young lad’s debut will be a stirring and contemporary piece of work. The deep amber, dramatic melancholy to the cello and guitar composition of “Symptom” is matched by cinematic gravitas of filming in the firm grasp of London based director/cinematographer James Heaphy. Heaphy spoke of his relationship to Laucan’s music, which lifts and carries like a feather the imagery of a confined man with a VR headset as his only outlet to the world:
“For me, I really related to the lyrics and emotions behind this track. I think we all make prisons for ourselves, and often it’s our own thoughts that restrict our liberty the most, when really our outlook is the only thing we can have total control over in any given situation. Like the stories we tell ourselves the video can be interpreted in many different ways. The track has such cinematic sound and I wanted to try and match that with the visuals.”
Laucan says of the song: “Symptom was really just the result of not knowing what else to do. Where to put frustrations and grievances. We build our own realities, consciously and subconsciously, and I wanted to find something beautiful in this particular one”
With Andrew Phillips of Ninja Tune’s post-rock duo Grasscut as Galpin’s collaborator, Laucan has already quietly made its impact felt, with the recently-released and beautiful Up Tomorrow EP and performances at SXSW. In a press release, we get a sense of what Laucan is about:
“When Lewes-raised newcomer Laucan began singing in falsetto after the break-up of his old band, he had his reasons. ‘I didn’t want anyone hearing my songs through the door of my room,’ recalls Laurence Galpin..The falsetto holds firm but the reluctance to be heard is changing with the arrival of the 27-year-old’s debut album, Frames Per Second. Building on the promise of his debut EP, Up Tomorrow, Frames sets impressionist lyrical images and heart-in-mouth reveries on innocence lost to sublime music: poised between spectral folk and immersive soundscapes, it’s the sound of a singer who found something special in his attic-based isolation..His sense of counterpoint sharp, Galpin makes splendid isolation sound inviting. With Andrew Phillips, Galpin composes with a cinematic auteur’s sense of shading and world-building and a flair for sound art that evokes a sense of environment.”
