As the recently opened Belgrave Music Hall seeks to firmly establish itself at the heart of the Leeds’ live music scene, its cause will be done no harm whatsoever by presenting artists such as these. The principal support comes from Eaves, the flag under which local singer-songwriter Joseph Lyons flies. You can’t see him – the stage lighting brings a whole new meaning to the word subdued – but you sure can hear him. He may well have Neil Young’s eponymous debut, Jeff Buckley and Fleet Foxes in his record collection but he still puts his own distinctive seal upon a mature, confident selection of songs most, if not all of which will eventually appear on his first album.
A number of singles and EPs into her recording career, Nadine Carina also comes from a bit further afield – Liverpool, albeit by way of her Swiss homeland. She is 26 years of age yet her songs speak of a
lifetime of experience. Wrapped inside deceptively simple melodies – performed for the most part on a MIDI keyboard controller and assisted by a series of foot pedals and pre-programmed percussive and electronic loops – many of her words, sung as they are in a faltering voice that operates on a continuum stretching all the way from Rita Lee to Björk, convey a lingering sadness.
The haunting quality of Nadine Carina’s songs is further emphasised by an accompanying series of flickering projected images into which her presence occasionally hoves. At these moments she is no more than a ghostly apparition. The experience is like looking through an old photograph album by candlelight whilst listening to the soundtrack of that person’s life.
But for all of its melancholy, Carina’s music is also imbued with a strong sense of hope. It may have just lain out of her reach on new single ‘The Love’, but under the beautiful trance-like shimmer of ‘Shores’ she dreams of eventually finding true love and contentment. On the evidence of her forthcoming EP Things That People Love To Remember – from which both of these songs are taken – and the strength and versatility of this performance, her future can surely be viewed with equal optimism.
