We Saw Heaven

We Saw HeavenLefthand Productions ****

The name might be new, but the brains behind the name is a relatively old hand. Irish musician and producer Ken McHugh once operated as Autamata, an on-off band that released three distinctive albums sung and co-written with a variety of female vocalists. What really set those records apart, though, was McHugh's innate sense of melody, and in this, his new instrumental "project", he utilises his strengths supremely well. There are no lead vocals here, though, which means the tracks live or die on the melody lines. Written and recorded in bucolic surroundings prior to relocating to city living, the tracks successfully capture the quiet and rolling landscape of the countryside, with particular standouts being the erratically mispelled Watercolurs, the aptly titled Luminosityand the gorgeous harp-driven (courtesy of Eva O'Gorman) Ebb and Flow.

Download tracks: Luminosity, Ebb and Flow