Luke Ritchie is a fresh face in the acoustic world, with his debut album The Water’s Edge due for release at the end of July. His music sits somewhere between Frank Turner and Ben Howard, with hypnotic versus that set a chilled tone to his music with an uplifting edge.
Back in 2010 Luke set himself an interesting challenge, to write a song every week for six months which he recorded at home on his acoustic guitar and then distributed as a podcast, which received around 8,500 downloads. This in turn led him to a record deal with a small indie label called Angel Falls Records.
Having previously been one part of a rock band it seems a strange transition for Luke, but tracks such as Shanty show the way that the big-band element of his music is still very much intertwined into his music.
The new video for the track, filmed Live at Bush Hall, shows the ‘building’ nature of his music – that moves in peaks and troughs to keep the listener on their toes. Luke’s also in the process of sending his music around the globe, using 100 handmade tins which he calls ‘music box’s’.
The tins contain an MP3 player with his album on it, along with instructions for the user to firstly listen to the album somewhere memorable, take a picture of it in that place and then pass it onto a friend to continue its journey around the world.
So far the tins have made it to every continent and been photographed next to an array of historic artefacts and wonders of the world! The idea was to give people the experience of physical music that has been lost with MP3 and at the same time the viral-nature of online.
Luke’s live performance is also causing a stir in the London area. His backing band give his sound a maturity lifting him above the queue of other acoustic artists packing bars out every weekend.
Luke is currently preparing to launch his debut album The Water’s Edge on July 23rd and his new single “Cover It Up” is out now.
This article was written by Elenoar Turner, follow her on Twitter @ElenoarTurner.
Previously: Introducing Keaton Henson
This article was written by Elenoar Turner, follow her on Twitter @ElenoarTurner.
Previously: Introducing Keaton Henson
