UK Avant-Pop Artist Nick Hudson Releases ‘Lights Svoboda’- All Funds Go Towards Ukrainian Humanitarian Aid
100% of the proceeds will be donated to two charities carrying out humanitarian work on the ground - Red Cross Ukraine and Razom For Ukraine
British avant-pop artist Nick Hudson presents his new single ‘Lights Svoboda’ (translates as ‘Lights Freedom’), recorded together with Kianna Blue, his bandmate in The Academy of Sun. Out in time for Bandcamp Friday, all proceeds will go towards charities directly involved in humanitarian aid efforts in Ukraine.
While the framework of this song originated six years ago during epic recording sessions for The Academy Of Sun’s 2020 opus album ‘The Quiet Earth’, it didn’t end up being included on that album. Now, global reality has tragically and uncannily come to resonate with the song’s poetically fractured scenes of dictatorship, nuclear threat and razed landscapes.
Returning from a month in the formerly Soviet republic of Georgia and watching in horror as Russia launched its attack on Ukraine, Nick felt desperate to apply his skill set to a tangible purpose within the crisis and here we have it – a desolate hymn woven with the plaintive vocals of Kianna Blue and the haunting schisms of the Faemi M1 analogue synth.
“The opening features a recording I made in Georgia, into my Soviet cassette recorder, of my 20-year-old Russian exile friend who fled to Georgia to avoid facing criminal charges for protesting Navalny’s imprisonment. I had him say “freedom, hope and truth” in Russian. He headed out to join the Ukrainian army last week,” says Nick Hudson.
“It features myself on piano, voice, Soviet analogue synth, melodica and field recordings, and Kianna Blue on backing vocals and bass. Originally written for The Quiet Earth but now uncannily and undesirably relevant.’
A prolific figure on the UK music scene, Hudson had a productive 2021, releasing his 8-track ‘K69996ROMA:EP’ and the album ‘Font Of Human Fractures’, his first long-player as a solo artist in five years). Nick’s vast output also encompasses painting, film, and a novel. Hudson has also collaborated with Wayne Hussey (The Mission), Matthew Seligman (Bowie, Tori Amos, Morrissey), members of Kayo Dot, David Tibet (Current 93), Asva, queercore icon GB Jones, as well as Massive Attack’s Shara Nelson. Having toured 3 continents, highlights include shows with Mogwai, Toby Driver and Keith Abrams (Kayo Dot), and Timba Harris (Mr Bungle, Amanda Palmer).
A Bandcamp exclusive, 100% of the proceeds will be donated in support of two charities carrying out humanitarian work on the ground in Ukraine – Red Cross Ukraine and Razom For Ukraine – each of them covering slightly different areas of aid. Further, Revolut Bank will match contributions to Red Cross Ukraine over the next week. Download the single via Bandcamp and learn how you can support Ukraine and its people at this critical moment in world history.
Lyrics
A Russian icon from Chernobyl.
Irradiated locusts, in a suitcase,
In a cabinet full of puffer fish, half-decayed.
A camera, cadaverous, too recalcitrant to
Focus, and abracadabra, behold what we’ve made.
A not-so-serial killer, questing and vanilla, walking in the
Shadow of the prison wall,
Murmuring “I do not trust anyone who cannot lie.” thinking
“Sew my soft mouth into your
Jaw, and try not to cry.”
We’ll crowdfund your funeral,
And if it ends well, it hasn’t really ended – we’ll drill down to hell,
And draw out the souls of the damned you unfriended,
Whose rags are too threadbare to sell.
And yes, tears fall from the sky now,
Since my green eyes dried – saying
How it was mine to decide to let
Grief be the thief or let sorrow’s bird strangle the night.
In that grassy bunker tucked behind the viaduct,
Our words become forged into will.
The scattershot hum of a drone in the valley.
Everything perfectly still.
Under the weight of slow dying I’m amazed we keep trying,
Your face mirrored in the water
Leeching out from the shell of a bombed-out hydro-electrical plant;
By the concreted lake, full of rags too threadbare to sell.
A pylon, smouldering, threaded with seaweed.
A bald teddy bear stuffed with damp passports.
A shard of reactor core, carved like The Virgin, as we queue to dictate our last thoughts to no-one.
Svoboda, Nadezdah, Pravda (Freedom, Hope and Truth)
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Source: Shameless Promotion
