Pōneke/Wellington-based singer-songwriter Ebony Lamb releases a new single ‘My Daughter My Sister My Son’ on Slow Time Records, the boutique label helmed by acclaimed Aotearoa/New Zealand musician Nadia Reid. Ebony was recently recognised as a Top 20 Finalist for the 2023 APRA Silver Scroll Awards for her song ‘Take My Hands At Night‘.
Unfolding with the logic of a dream, ‘My Daughter My Sister My Son’ is underscored by a shuffling, nocturnal rhythm with nostalgic music-box melodies and sweeping synthesisers. Ebony sings with a husky, honey-soaked croon, reflecting on the importance of close personal connections and dreams amidst the shared impermanence of the world around us. ‘My Daughter My Sister My Son’ was played and produced with two of New Zealand’s most celebrated musicians, Bic Runga and Kody Nielson (Opossom, Silicon, UMO), who bring a distinctive edge. Ebony reflects on the song, saying: “This track says the things I’d been trying to say at a time when we were all grappling with the unknown in 2020.”
As Ebony’s first release on Slow Time Records (also home to Whanganui musician Anthonie Tonnon), label founder Nadia Reid expresses her enthusiasm for the signing, saying, “I’ve known Ebony for close to 12 years now. I met her as a fireball of positivity in Wellington when she was starting out with Eb and Sparrow (and I was starting out too) and since then we remained as sort of mentors and very close friends. Eb has taken many important portraits of me (including the cover of Preservation) and we’ve watched each other grow through the years.
“I see this new music as an almost ‘arrival’ as a solo (multi-disciplinary) artist. Departing from her band project and stepping into a solo domain is no mean feat. I’m proud Slow Time is adding Ebony Lamb to the stable and releasing her music out to the world.”
Praise for previous work:
“…one of the country’s coolest, most sultry voices” The NZ Listener
“a singer of brooding soulfulness and coiled constraint” Graham Reid – Elsewhere
“Not often do I come across a Kiwi band that with a single album moves from one to watch, to leaving every other contender in its wake. This is it.” Tom Cardy – DOM POST
“a genuinely show-stopping sound” James Belfield – NZ Listener
“This is the sound of your new favourite band” Simon Sweetman
“an extraordinary showcase of originality and musicality, which stands out in the current New Zealand landscape” Barry Saunders, Warratahs
“whole-hearted, deep-hued, visceral tales in the Americana-country-folk-blues vein, with such beautiful warmth and fragility you’re hooked from the first glide of lap steel to the last soaring vocal phrase” Lydia Jenkin, New Zealand Herald
“Ebony Lamb is blessed with more than just a poetic name. She has the voice of woodsmoke and honey” Nick Bollinger – NZ Listener
Ebony Lamb writes with a poetic voice and a vivid, surrealistic intimacy. The New Zealand singer-songwriter and photographer turns the minutiae of everyday life and the defining memories that stay with us into a rich melange of folk, jazz, soul, and ambient pop. The Wellington-based artist spent her formative years as a traveller, mother, and worker of many jobs, eventually co-founding the alt-country band Eb & Sparrow in 2010. Drawing comparisons to Gillian Welch, Cat Power and Neko Case, Ebony released three critically-acclaimed albums with the band before embarking on a solo career under her own name. Ebony has supported international and national acts such as Tiny Ruins, Nadia Reid, Marlon Williams, Beth Orton, Rodriguez, Bic Runga, Tami Neilson, Lawrence Arabia and more.
Follow Ebony Lamb:
Official Site / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Youtube / Bandcamp
