After what seemed like a decade of hiding under the light, Elizabeth Fraser steps out and lets her graceful presence find warmth. Donning the Sun Signature project with her partner, they have weaved chamber folk with a progressive lushness, stringing along mystic tracks that allows Elizabeth's vocals to float within. While a rather mundane approach in the genre, there is ground to be explored for the project to keep wafting through.
After what seemed like the dream finally wilting away, Elizabeth Fraser’s return as a musician has brought excitement to those that have come to love and adore her those past decades ago. Simply put, she’s the frontwoman of the acclaimed dream pop group, Cocteau Twins. That aura in her vocals is always so captivating when that dream pop band were active at their peaks, those solemn attributes in her delivery amidst those ethereal effects is what makes their albums so sweet and so hypnotic where she presents her voice as a guiding clarity to all the immersive echoes of their albums. And when they do disband in 1997, they did manage to insert themselves in history, especially with Elizabeth Fraser’s signature vocal pulls still stirring waves of ethereal moments in their entire discography.
But Elizabeth Fraser after all these years still has her presence, but it’s now in a different state of sound. Working alongside her longtime partner Damon Reece, they have worked as Sun Signature ever since 2011, now introducing an EP 11 years later that weaves in chamber folk and progressive pop with an eye for the calming theatrics. Most of these tracks, while have been in some shape and form for a decade now are shaped and carved up nicely in the EP, all with languid melodies where Elizabeth Fraser’s vocals winds through with more trilling grace as Damon Reece’s production work with the acoustics, strings, chimes, drums, and synths knit together a place where that sun will never burn you, but rather nourishes your soul.
While not immediate, these pieces gently cozes you down with their simmering warmth. Elizabeth’s vocals open up ‘Underwater’ just before the progressive churn of the drums, nimble bass licks, and string swells progress through, capturing whatever consciousness exists and transferring them to a higher plane of existence. ‘Golden Air’ elevates that grandeur of the duality of morning and midnight, art pop and progressive folk elements glisten with acoustics, bass, and drum patterns that frolic in the first couple of minutes just before it sweeps through in glorious fashion with the synth swells acting as a magical backdrop for the instrumentation. The presence of love described in ‘Bluedusk’ is heartwarming and timeless, elevated even further with the still yet simmering movements of the chimes, woodwinds, guitars, and percussion.
It also lulls you down to a peaceful state, where even the barest of acoustics has enough magic to keep you caressed. The landscape that changes with time still stands in its beauty on ‘Apples’, the longest track of the EP that primarily poses its acoustic strums amidst bursts of electric guitar and chimes that pulses through at spots. Contrasting that is the shortest track of the EP, ‘Make Lovely The Day’, where the only acoustic guitar plays gently as Elizabeth’s cooing ends the EP with the sun rising up to start another lovely day.
This EP is composed with enough complexity and is well-produced to let the instrumentation breathe and give the right amount of space for Elizabeth Fraser’s soothing vocals and imaginative writing to come through, even despite some of the cleaner textures and synth integration that either doesn’t work well or could’ve brought more interesting textures that would fit the simmering tones of the instrumentation much better. Additionally, this brand of tasteful and well-arranged chamber folk and progressive pop that the EP has presented can come off quite ordinary, especially with the lyricism, vocal delivery, and tasteful instrumentation that fits what it needs to pull off but can be a little plain at some edges.
At the end of the day, it’s a sun-drenched set of progressive pop and chamber folk tunes that Elizabeth Fraser and Damon Reece have composed. The tasteful instrumental flavor, broad yet mystic lyrical paintings of nature and the beyond, as well as Elizabeth’s gliding vocal presence are done well enough despite some questions about certain texture and synth integrations as well as the mundanity of this brand of genres that Sun Signature’s are pulling through. Still, the fact that Elizabeth Fraser is back in the spotlight to make more music is great to hear, where those who adored her in the past and those who are discovering her in the present will find some resonance with this EP. Let’s hope that there’s more of this sunkissed atmosphere in the future.
Favorite Tracks: Underwater, Golden Air, Bluedusk
Least Favorite Track: Make Lovely The Day