Loradeniz’s debut long-player, SUN SHONE, is by design a set of 2 halves. The first aims to capture a sense of heartbreak. In this it certainly succeeds, summoning romantic sorrow from a haunting mix of ethereal harmonies, quiet choir-like sighs – part Art Of Noise, Claire Hammil, Clannad, Enya and Julia Holter – and eerie, enchanted music box chimes. The latter slightly wonky, as if the toy were winding down, the clockwork cogs still clicking but tiring of turning. The modular synth shapes it spins and weaves are abstract but melodic. Something like futuristically fashioned Renaissance / Baroque madrigals. Vocals travelling between tongues – Loradeniz is Istanbul-born, Amsterdam-based – and wistful, wordless wails. The teaser track, Brickhouse, is a techno-pop hymn. 

The second side is also coloured by the spectre of nostalgia and melancholy, but decides to get back out there, rather than sit alone indoors. Here, Loradeniz fixes things to a muted but forceful 4 / 4, and takes her blues out dancing. The sonics are subtle, sophisticated enough for home / headphone listening but I have a suspicion that they’ll boom on a big system. Swimmer’s vocal crackles as if it might be been field recorded on a phone, during a break from the dancefloor, in a club toilet. Its private declaration, confession of love a moment of moving toward closure and healing. After Sun then hits like a summer holiday. It’s oboe-like oscillations and sampled children’s laughter skipping to a Balearic house sunset shuffle. Birds sing, percussion is playfully filtered and a piano pirouettes. The air remains thoughtful, introspective, but now optimistic, facing forward. Loradeniz’s line, “The search of love continues in the face of great odds”, made me think of the outsider artist Daniel Johnston’s most famous song, “True love will find you in the end… but only if you’re looking will it find you…”

Loradeniz’s Sun Shone can be ordered directly from Music From Memory.