Pōneke/Wellington-based singer-songwriter Ebony Lamb shares the focus song and video ‘Come, Put A Record On’ from her debut self-titled solo album, out today, October 20th through Nadia Reid‘s boutique record label, Slow Time Records.
With its intimate delivery, the track’s lyrics emphasise the role of music as a vital connector, featuring dissonant vocal layering and a meditative arpeggiated rhythm that builds into a call to action. Once again played and produced by Bic Runga and Kody Nielson, two of New Zealand’s finest modern musicians, their bold production choices bring this vulnerable performance to life.
Ebony Lamb explains, “This song has been recorded in so many ways. This version came out of a demo session with Dave Khan (Reb Fountain), Gram Antler (Eb & Sparrow) and myself in 2019. It’s about noticing human behaviour and the potential power of art to influence it. It’s extending an invitation to participate in a shared moment – “Come, put a record on.”
The captivating music video was shot with a period piece aesthetic on the Otago Peninsula’s Kamau Taurua/Quarantine Island. Jacob Munro directed it with DOP Oscar Mein (Soaked Oats), supported by NZ On Air. The intentional switches between black and white and colour reflect Ebony’s distinct style as both a photographer and musician.
To celebrate her debut self-titled solo album’s release, Ebony and her band will embark on a seven-date tour across Aotearoa starting October 27th.
Tickets are available at Banishedmusic.com.
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Ebony Lamb – ‘Come, Put A Record On’
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About EBONY LAMB:
A captivating work of impressionistic memories, observations and intimate confessions, Ebony wrote her debut self-titled solo album while coming into prominence as an in-demand portrait photographer within New Zealand’s contemporary literature and independent music scenes. The release comes five years after her alt-country band, Eb & Sparrow, amicably parted ways in 2018.
Recorded on vintage analog studio gear and mastered to tape, EBONY LAMB finds collaborators Bic Runga and Cody Nielson placing Ebony’s distinct, fragile-but-firm voice within a cinematic confluence of jazz, folk, psychedelia, alt-country and ambient pop. Written over the last five years while coming to terms with the realities of a changing world, themes of gratitude, loss, acceptance and aspiration run through the album like a river, especially in the nocturnal groove of ‘My Daughter My Sister My Son’ and ‘Brother Get Me Home’.
From the album’s opening notes, Ebony expresses herself in non-judgmental terms, singing with a raw tenderness that draws listeners into her reflections on friendship (‘Drive Me Around’), the complexity and contradictions of success (‘Successful Feelings’), and connections in seemingly hopeless moments (‘Come, Put A Record On’). Yet while her songs can feel like she’s sitting just across from you, Runga and Nielson’s production imbues them with an expansive sensibility.
Spare, vivid and moving, EBONY LAMB is an album that captures a defining artistic leap from a talented artist coming into her own. Singing to herself and the listener, she implores us to continue reaching forward without losing sight of what we have and the elements of our lives that truly matter.
Release Tour This Spring
About Ebony Lamb:
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.
Ebony Lamb – EBONY LAMB
1. My Daughter My Sister My Son
2. Take My Hands At Night
3. Salt, Sand Sea
4. Midnight Is My Name
5. Swim To Me
6. Drive Me Around
7. Successful Feelings
8. Come, Put A Record On
9. Brother Get Me Home
10. Star Confessor
Ebony Lamb – Ebony Lamb is out October 20 via Slow Time Records
Follow Ebony Lamb:
Official Site / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram / Youtube / Bandcamp
