Release Radar: Chantel Van T's debut album 'Nicalochan'
Chantel Van T’s new album, Nicalochan, is equal parts haunting and uplifting – and signals her ability to take alternative folk to the outer-edges of a stark but deeply affecting musical landscape.
Recorded on tape in Christopherson’s (WSLS Records) self-built studio, over two Berlin summers, Chantel describes the experience as fever-like as she moved through the see-sawing emotional states that saturate the music. Also present was a feeling of awe at the process that unravelled before her as she found a release for “a lot of longing, questioning, seeking as well as a rest and reprise for my reoccurring dreams of the image and representation of Nicalochan”.
Heralded by singles “Rumble and Crawl”, “Come To Me”, “Petrichor” and “Coming Home”, Nicalochan’s 11 songs invite repeated listening that rewards time-and-time again - and act as a powerful reminder of the alchemy that can happen when collaborative creativity mines the purest of sources. In the end, Nicalochan is an ode to an unknown force that visits Chantel. It is a spacious, gentle and powerful record that leaves listeners with nothing less than a sense of inspiration and wonder.
