At first listen, Luluc sound utterly otherworldly and antique. The female vocals have a timeless quality. Lying somewhere in the land between Joni Mitchell and Laura Marling, it is possible to compare Zoë Randell’s voice, but it stands distinctively out on its own.

Zoë Randell, along with Steve Hassett make up this little ditty of an act Luluc, pronounced Loo-Luke. After six years, they return with a second LP, containing a precious collection of songs.

The record is nostalgic and considerate. There is a certain longing felt in most of the songs. The lyrical path is pensive and wistful; the instrumentation sparse and delicately put.

The album has won the hearts of many. The National, Nick Drake and producer Joe Boyd are among the people that have fallen head over heels for these songs.  No Depression cofounder Peter Blackstock called Dear Hamlyn “the most beautiful record I have heard in 10 years.” Blackstock contacted Sub Pop cofounder Jonathan Poneman and he happily signed Luluc.

The pair recorded ‘Passerby’ in Arron Dessner’s garage studio in Brooklyn’s Ditmas Park. The album is a slow burning one. The more you listen, the more at home you become, the more you notice, and the more you appreciate.

It seems as though the process of the album was an organic progression. It was brought about by chance meetings and finding like-minded people who shared the love for the written word and the stories that were told eloquently and thoughtfully through song and sound. It might have taken a while looking back, but sometimes good things come to those who wait, and sometimes things unfurl when they are ready, and they feel right.

“None of it seemed particularly slow for us,” says Randell. “We were never going to put the record out until the songs were recorded the way they needed to be. This was about getting the music right and the songs right, and making sure that they’d found their proper voice.”

The record is one that you might like to listen to in your car, or with your headphones in, or play loudly in your loungeroom. It is nice to listen to it in a quiet place, but it carries well in an open environment, too. The tone and the textures flutter and fall in angelic ways. It is a rare find, this album.

Tracklisting for Luluc-

1. Small Window

2. Without A Face

3. Passerby

4. Winter Is Passing

5. Tangled Heart

6. Senja

7. Reverie on Norfolk Street

8. Early Night

9. Gold on the Leaves

10. Star

Artwork by Fleur Rendell
Luluc.com