Melbourne-based duo My Lovely Haunting captivate across their new album Forgotten Moon, glowing with an atmospheric aesthetic the project calls “Bladerunner Folk” — a fusion of haunting folk melodies and expansive, film-inspired soundscapes. The musical collaboration of Alex and Lucy, My Lovely Haunting embrace analogue experimentation and ethereal songwriting amidst cinematic sensibilities, paired with lyricism that compels in its themes of personal hardship and required perseverance.
Alex’s film and photography background helps shape My Lovely Haunting’s sonic identity, infusing the project with analogue-driven textures and a moody, sci-fi atmosphere that feels lifted from a forgotten cult classic. Complementing this, Lucy brings her neoclassical roots and gift for emotively sincere songwriting. She has previously released neoclassical instrumental music under the name Luminem.
The album’s introduction presents a sweeping, cinematic soundscape — evoking a futuristic nighttime glow with its caressing synth pads, wavering with hazy allure. Its slow-burning, spacey tonal sentiments unveil with chilly immersion, bolstered by wordless vocal-like elements that play like a space-set choir, set in the furthest reaches of the unknown.
This beautifully otherworldly scene-setter then moves into “Drifting,” whose solemn acoustics emanate a lonesome folk character that resembles a coming back down to terra firma. Lucy’s vocals are haunting here, exuding “drifting away” hypnotics as twinkling, eerie keys resonate. Her vocals stir in recounting the day of her father’s passing, with the title-based refrain feeling representative of life’s journey to an eventual end.
Another emotional success comes in “Star Gazing,” where sporadic piano pulses and a simmering textural build complement further vocal entrancement from Lucy, beckoning “let’s go out gazing at the stars” — and finding solace in the vastness of space, reminding us of our place within the universe, and also helping to remedy emotional pain following a sense of being overwhelmed. “‘Star Gazing’ was the first track where our folk roots and cinematic production really came together in a way that felt like ‘us’,” Alex says. “It’s where My Lovely Haunting truly began.”
The album’s stellar songwriting doesn’t let up from there. “Lost Again” achieves a spine-tingling tranquility in its mixture of wordless vocal darkness and warming keys, moving into Alex’s introspective vocals — which ascend from moody subduedness into a soaring title-bearing enthrallment; its reflections on pain, and its many forms, plays aptly following tracks concerning familial death and being emotionally overwhelmed — while aesthetically it reminds fondly of Martin Gore-fronted Depeche Mode efforts. The ensuing “Medieval Lullaby” consumes as well with its combination of forlorn acoustics and uneasy spacey synths — being an excellent display of the project’s vibe-y “Bladerunner Folk” stylishness.
Lucy’s moving vocal presence returns on “The Window,” whose words of self-acceptance resonate amidst a melding of soft acoustics and illuminated backing textures, while “One May Day” embraces the synth realm further — especially in its theatrical, rousing conclusion. Album finale “Carnival” then concludes it all with blissful impact, incorporating ghostly piano work with ocean field recordings captured at Kennett River in Victoria — making for a gorgeously contemplative send-off to this fantastic album from My Lovely Haunting.
