When The Lights Gone Nostalgia 77

A set of simple songs in primary colours it explores Lamdin’s familiar themes of memory, time, truth and identity. After a hiatus of several years from releasing personal work Producer Benedic Lamdin has two albums set for release this year of which ‘When The Lights Gone’ is the first.

A second Album ‘The Looking Glass School’ follows later this year.

When The Lights Gone renews Lamdin’s partnership with Berlin based singer Yosa. “It was great to reconnect with Yosa after years not working together. She was about to start a family in Berlin and it seemed like the perfect time to try and pick up - to catch something before that new phase began. “Becoming immersed in family life is such an all encompassing experience It’s sometimes dreamlike in its own way. I think this record has something of that - it is naive and childlike in certain ways itself.”

“It was snowy in Berlin and we worked through songs I had brought for the album between stomps through the snow for food. “Sometimes songs don’t mean much or aren’t about anything more specific than a feeling … But sometimes a feeling is more than enough”

“I was reading Joan Didion's The White Album that Yosa had at her apartment. Somehow it seems the perfect text. Didion has a sly relationship to the truth - an understanding that in a sense all history is personal. The song ‘ We Tell Our Stories to Understand’ is for Joan is some of her own words.

Back in London Lamdin worked through the music and mixes in downtime from other projects. Recruiting friends and colleagues from studio work, this record primarily features John Blease of Heritage Orchestra on drums and Tom Herbert (The Invisible and Beth Gibbons) on Bass with Lamdin picking up several roles across different tracks and little cameos from studio owner Antonio Feola and Nostalgia 77 regular Tim Giles on Drums.

Between 2004 and 2014 Benedic Lamdin recording as Nostalgia 77 produced a run of 11 albums of original work. Between then and now a shifting focus on different studio work and a growing family has seen him take a break from releasing original work. He has remained active in the studio recording the likes of Ezra Collective, Kokoroko & Jamie Cullum to Swinger Mark Kavuma or Avant Garde pianists Pat Thomes and Alexander Hawkins. There are too many to mention, such is the terrific variety London’s scene has to offer.

“I love the energy and inspiration that comes from spending time in the studio with different musicians”, says Lamdin. “Everyone you meet has something interesting they bring and that you can learn from - it could be a musical concept, a sound, a worldview or just the energy they bring to music."

“AI music doesn’t worry me in that sense because all computers have the same energy - making music is more that mastering a musical language - it’s intention, energy and personality”

Over the coming months he plans to release the personal music produced over recent years, it ranges from more traditional jazz and soul to exploring the influence of songwriting on his work. Stay tuned.