Sun Collective: a Dublin ensemble who demand to be heard

On paper, Sun Collective’s debut album sounds like a box-ticking musical exercise. Songs written for string trio? For two pianos and three male voices? With a heavy jazz, indie, folk, orchestral and contemporary classical slant?

Somehow, the eight-piece Dublin ensemble not only consolidate their melting pot, but thrive while doing so. Silence blends the soft murmur of jazz with three-part harmonies before swinging headlong into a lush string arrangement; Burn takes a twangy banjo riff, threads it through a trickle of piano and builds to an indie-folk climax, while Nooses shimmers and fades in and out with a thrilling unpredictability.

The standout of these seven tracks is the swoonsome, soaring Tides, which is one of the most uplifting songs we've heard all year. This gem of an album may fly under your radar, but it really shouldn't.

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Download: Tides, Burns