new music: stream ‘lanterns,’ the stunning debut ep from april + vista #soundcheck

Opening with a delicate violin and piano duet reminiscent of Erick Satie’s arrangements of Debussy, April + VISTA’s debut EP Lanterns is a lush, immaculately produced evocative piece of experimental R&B. Over 6 tracks, the duo of April George and Matthew Thompson AKA mattVISTA, cast a moody spell of haunted mechanical beats and delicate but soulful vocals.

By Nathan Leigh, AFROPUNK Contributor

Lead single “If Light Escapes” is a tale of heartbreak over a beat that sounds like a mechanical heart misfiring. Spacey guitars flutter and flow against a wind-machine synth line beneath April George’s smooth voice. It’s devestating, but saved from wallowing by the impossibly gorgeous production. On “Lingering Chain,” the duo’s bridge between classical, jazz, R&B, and IDM reaches its apex. With the band’s strongest hook on wax, April George finds some solace in the knowledge that she’s better off alone. “You made me feel so incomplete / I was suffocating, I could hardly breathe.”

The title track rides a wind-up beat with a beautiful message of optimism and hope. “Lanterns” closes in search of “something to believe again” before fading into the stunning “Theme In Adagio.” If this EP was intended as a theme and variation on love and loss, it’s a clever twist to resolve it with the statement of the theme. Like the process of getting over a failed relationship, and learning to move on, Lanterns is a set of variations in search of a theme.