Erica Nockalls - Dark Music From A Warm Place (2021)

What happens when a classically-trained violinist explores the more twisted neighbourhoods of alternative pop? The work of Erica Nockalls provides the searingly accurate answer. If her albums Imminent Room and EN2 showcased her baby-sweet but barbed worldview, then new set Dark Music From A Warm Place takes that genre-neutral template and drowns it in honey-flavoured acid.

Her songwriting is removed from the pop norm: Emotionally derelict, blunt and melodically unsparing. This album is a tale of release and re-appropriation of oneself, a call of empowerment.

Dark Music From a Warm Place was conceived during a sad summer spent in Spain, then latterly mixed and produced by Jean-Charles Versari in Paris, France.

Gritty drum machines, generous synths, cutting tones mixed with unusual violins and glass-sharp vocals: ‘Pesante’ melodies meet modern anthems. Erica Nockalls’ conservatoire training as a violinist and vocalist are evident, but not defining. She chooses danger and experimentation with her violin, making it a tool of creation, rather than accompaniment.

Blunt. Honest. Generous. There’s a lid boiling on her British reserve.

“Elegant, experimental and atmospheric. Lynchian soundtrack at times. Excellent weirdy noises, wondrous violin and great production. A cracker LP.” – The Shend