Closing EP by Victoria Hume

Seven sparse, wintry songs of fluttering piano and strings, bright guitars and beautifully naturalistic vocals that will appeal to fans of artists from Sharon Van Etten to Joanna Newsom, Beth Orton and Kathryn Joseph, Closing found instant favour with Lost Map after it was passed to The Pictish Trail via a mutual friend and collaborator in acclaimed singer-songwriter and producer Adem. Adem (Ilhan) had worked with Victoria on her 2013 project Delirium, a cycle of songs themed around the complex hallucinations patients have been known to experience during hospital-based intensive care.

Written as Victoria was preparing to leave London for Johannesburg – a time of “heightened emotion and misdirection and a lack of an anchor” as she puts it – Closing captures a life in flux, from the sombre ‘Sell Everything’ written about the liberating effect of ridding oneself of material possessions, to a graceful meditation on loneliness in ‘Something Soft’, and the delicately rousing ‘Wild Wind’ with its sighing guitars and a stirring lyric about the necessity to take risks in life sometimes just to feel alive. The EP features a host of London and Johannesburg-based guest musicians, including sometimes Bat for Lashes and Phil Selway collaborator Quinta, South African songwriter and composer Chris Letcher (Hume’s husband), Andy Hamill (who has worked with Mercury Prize nominee Eska among many others), Josh Geffin, Christopher Reed and more.

The title track ‘Closing’ is available to stream and share now. Victoria will launch the EP with a free show at The Gladstone in London on Sunday, January 17.

DIY label, run by Pictish Trail, from his caravan on the Isle of Eigg, Scotland.