SIVU

Following on from Childhood House and Lonesome, SIVU has released the title track from his forthcoming second album, Sweet Sweet Silent. In the accompanying video launched this week (Prior to the track starting) we see SIVU (James Page) in an interview format talking about his recent diagnosis of Ménière’s disease, a degenerative inner-ear condition that includes progressive hearing loss as a symptom.

‘Sweet Silence Grows’ sings Page, as we are shown images of lightening storms, fires and a comet hurtling towards what is presumably Earth with text beneath stating: ‘It must be close now…yeah’. The context is clear; things are coming to an end and the song itself – a lush, electronic and orchestral track with Page’s distinctive vocals taking centre stage – does a lot to alleviate the negative connotations. Ultimately it’s a relaxing song and is, for me, a now rare occasion where a music video still matters as much as the song itself. It enhances the track and engages with us the audience on a deeper level, providing just three and half minutes of a much larger narrative.

‘Sweet Sweet Silent’ is a stunning body of work and is testament to the fortitude of SIVU as an artist, one of the many to be snapped up and let go by a major label, only to go on and create some of their best work yet. Posting through his Twitter account he said: “Sweet Sweet Silent is an album of my favourite songs I have wrote (sic). I hope you like it, I honestly don’t know if I will write another.”

With that in mind this second LP could well be the final offering from this remarkably talented musician, but with the gap between Something on High and forthcoming Sweet Sweet Silent being so far apart this is something that perhaps should be discussed in the future. Sad though the thought is, the next few months hold much excitement for fans of SIVU – for now there’s the new album as well as a UK tour throughout October, featuring Paul Thomas Saunders, Fenne Lilly and Siv Jakobsen too – plenty to get excited about. Sweet Sweet Silent is out through Square Leg Records on 7.7.17.

Words by Cal Kilpatrick

Tipped by Sally Rafferty