It's not often you come across an artist you can genuinely refer to as a "cult legend," but Vashti Bunyan is truly that. A full thirty-five years after her only previous release, the singer returned in 2006 with a new, breathtakingly beautiful album.
Bunyan's story tells of the thwarted promise of early fame, disenchantment, exile and eventual rediscovery. After cutting a single for Decca in the mid-'60s she despaired of the music industry and set off for a creative colony the singer Donovan was organizing in the countryside. She returned to the city in 1969 to record Just Another Diamond Day, an album featuring members of The Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention.
Soon after Bunyan slipped into obscurity. The record was rapidly forgotten, yet over the years accrued a cultish currency. In the late '90s, Bunyan became aware of the renewed interest, and JADD was re-released to great acclaim. A host of young, new admirers have emerged citing her influence, and Bunyan has since recorded with Piano Magic, The Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde, Devendra Banhart, and Animal Collective.
Far from some kind of appendage tacked onto the end of an amazing story and a past classic, Lookaftering is a fully beautiful album in its own right. Produced and co-arranged by fellow Edinburgh resident Max Richter, it's a rich, stirring album -- from the fragile intimacy of the vocal itself to the stories that it weaves.
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