Salt (LP) ~ Vinyl ~ Roseau

Roseau has made the brilliant debut album she’s long promised to. As well as appearances on acclaimed records from Lapalux and Dels, an inclusion on Bonobo’s Late Night Tales, and tours with Lianne La Havas, Lucy Rose and Laura Mvula. Under her real name Kerry Leatham’s music has been featured on Grey’s Anatomy and Adulthood. Written and recorded in the space and quiet of the Essex countryside, Salt contains music both elemental and intimate. Its sonics were inspired by a chance exploration of a giant abandoned warehouse. Finding herself in a vast space with only an old car tyre, an extinguished bonfire and some bottles and sticks, she screamed, threw bottles, sang, stomped, hit the tyre with the sticks, and made as many sounds as possible – then she came back, day after day, to record them. These sounds form the backbone of Salt’s bewitching sonics, colouring the album with a powerful atmosphere, and providing the perfect backdrop for Leatham’s unique voice and lyrics. The album’s songs contain powerful themes; about the devastation of first heartbreak, the aftermath and numbness; about belonging, or not; and about self-confidence and its absence. Leatham enhances the natural beauty of her voice with her experimental harmonies and pitch shifts, adding texture to an album that’s casually littered with infectious hooks. Salt is British music from the leftfield at its best: experimental but welcoming, deep but utterly