Photo by J. Foxton
Sometimes a whisper is capable of becoming a storm. The tiniest, most delicate elements can gather an unexpected momentum and floor you with a force you simply didn’t see coming. Sweden’s Linn Osterberg, who goes by the moniker Sea Lion, has a habit of creating songs that do exactly that, and her new track ‘Ghostlands’ is a perfect example.
Having honed her craft over the course of two initial EPs, Big Moon and Cobra Eyes, these early tracks seemed to bear witness to Osterberg finding her feet as a lyricist. But with ‘Ghostlands’, as well as her preceding track ‘Room’ which dropped a few weeks ago, she has found the perfect balance between intensity and restraint.
‘Ghostlands’ is razor sharp. It cuts icy, emotive slices out of the air with its sparse guitar line and the track holds a spectral spaciousness entirely fitting to its name. But it’s Osterberg’s distinctive vocals that harbour haunting echoes of Vashti Bunyan and Joanna Newsom that deliver the understated intensity that proves Sea Lion to be a distinctive and exiting voice. With her debut album Desolate Stars on the August horizon, a beautiful storm seems inevitable.
Sea Lion plays London’s The Islington in London on 22nd June, and in the meantime you can listen to ‘Ghostlands’ below.
