One encounters such diverse sights engulfed when walking through a city. Each street, each avenue, each sector, and the people that live in them are unique. It may surprising how such scenes are contained in just one single moment of space and time; how a relatively small environment may pack so much life. Krys Blank’s new EP is Big City (OUT NOW!!!) microcosm of an urban landscape. It encapsulates its diversity, its vistas, its atmosphere, and the people who live in it.
Krys Blank is an English singer-songwriter based in London. His project is based on a personal search for authenticity through music and words and Big City reflects it. The EP is mainly inspired by Blank’s own journeys through London: through its streets, parks, and avenues. While the city is a physical place, Blank delves furthermore to present it as a state of mind: when living in the city, one becomes part of it; we have to adapt to it or be left behind. Big City captures the moment when we are left of our own in the city and the various struggles we have to go through to adapt and grow within its space. The EP was recorded in Tileyard Studios, London with Krys Blank playing the guitar, piano, and vocals. It involved the participation of various musicians, including Reiss Hemming (drums), Tom Katon (guitar), Tristan Henry (piano), and Daka (bass).
Big City experiments with various sounds, genres, and moods to make us feel as if we were traveling through a city and its vistas writing down everything we see. The EP is an atmospheric journey that invites us to “become one with the city”. It is highly recommended to listen to the EP in order, as each of the tracks paints the process of growing up. “Grown” sings about growing up and adventuring on their own, trying to find oneself. Its nostalgic guitars accompany the vocals, by which Krys Blank paints the picture of growing up. “Open Door” reflects the effort it takes to find oneself. The track has sudden outbursts of emotion that represent the optimism one reaches. “Let your bf know” is an upbeat track about loyalty in relationships with a rebellious touch with its guitars. “Coffee” is a love ballad about realizing that one is in love with someone. Krys Blank’s piano chords and emotional vocals carry a tremendous power that makes us feel butterflies in our stomachs. Experimental in its first half and emotional in its closing moments, “Cycle” is about realizing past mistakes and making amends with who we once were. The title track of the album “Big City” is about traveling through a city as if it were a maze. Upbeat and groovy, it is a track that shines on Krys Blank’s songwriting abilities. The closing track of the album is “Heart Out”. An ethereal track: the guitars’ sounds seem to go further beyond the horizon with powerful lyrics. We have reached the end of our journey. The album closes masterfully with a brilliant poem written and read by none other than Nobel Laureate Wisława Szymborska! Blank makes it shine even further with his music.
With Big City, Krys Blank invites us to explore the city he has built with music as his building blocks. He shows us different aspects of it to illustrate how the city grows alongside its residents. As we walk further and further, through its buildings, streets, avenues, suburbs, houses, seeing and meeting everything it has to offer, we look backward. It is when we see the city lights behind our backs when we finally realize just how far away we have gotten.
Don’t forget to support this project and to follow on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Spotify. It also helps to stream and share her music; you can obviously find it in the following Playlists on release day this Friday, January 21st: Less Than 1,000 Followers, Indie Only, Alterindie State Of Mind, Chill – Folk – Acoustic, and 12 New Songs This Week.
P.S. If you enjoy discovering new artists and fresh new music you can subscribe to this blog Less Than 1,000 Followers and follow the Playlist with all the artists that we have presented here!!!
This coverage was created via Musosoup #Sustainablecurator