Andrew Eaton Lewis, is a song writer known for his work in Seafieldroad and as a member of the band Swimmer One, who released a run of impressively sophisticated synth pop records. Last year he covered ‘Find the River’ in a stately fashion for the R.E.M. compilation. His new album “Tourism”, his first for Wee Studio Records, is a set of impressively evocative piano-led interconnected songs inspired by his move from Edinburgh to the Outer Hebrides.
“Tourism” is a collection of songs inspired by that life change – songs about crofts and sheep and dark skies and wild weather, about feeling like a tourist in someone else’s culture, about the ‘mainland’ becoming somewhere on the edge of your experience, about my past and my children’s future, and ultimately about whether we are all just tourists on Earth, on a brief visit from somewhere more permanent that we return to afterwards.
That sense of being out of place bleeds through each rich song suite, Eaton-Lewis’s voice possessing a wistfulness that sails from weathered to falsetto peaks. “The winters can feel endless/but there’s beauty in the darkness” he sings on the bittersweet opener and title track. While the song cycle of ‘A Guide to the Western World‘ and the superlative building ‘Vahalla‘ is riven with a yearning and melancholia that’s reminiscent of some of Nick Cave‘s early solo work. The sense of clarity here, of experiences lived and learnt, and the acknowledgement of the fragility of life makes, this is a record you should invest time in.
Vocals, piano, organ, synths, stamping, clapping: Andrew Eaton Lewis
Guitars: Scott C Park
Live drums: Keith Morrison, Scott C Park
Produced by Keith Morrison at Wee Studio.
Cover image by Andy Yearley.
Cover design by Andrew Eaton Lewis and Scott C Park
New music from ex Swimmer One / Seafieldroad singer-songwriter, now living in Outer Hebrides and signed to Wee Studio Records.
‘Adult pop with heart and brains.’ The Guardian.
released March 18th, 2022
The Fat Angel Sings 