Who doesn’t look to the moon for guidance in matters of the heart? And where better to look for a voice to guide you than a rising star coming from the place of Massive Attack, Portishead, Tricky and The Wild Bunch? It’s an age-old tradition in song and verse and following this lineage as well as a long line of British female singer-songwriters, eclectic Bristol, UK-based songspinner Saskia Nyx adds modern depth with her new single, simply titled “Moon.”
With its spare piano-and-cello arrangement and heartfelt vocal, the track walks a fine line between melancholy and hopeful. More otherworldly than her previous release, “Motorbike” – although that song, too, doesn’t quite belong to Planet Earth – it shows the singer missing her loving partner while taking some comfort in their seeing—and sharing—the same moon. The song, in fact, was inspired on a moonlit night: “A trap door opened in the sky,” Nyx recalls, “and the song ‘Moon’ fell out.”
The song may be rooted in a real situation, but “Moon”’s cinematic, dreamlike qualities make the experience universal. The singer’s vulnerability seduces the listener, holding them close, from her plaintive opening notes to the prayerful repetition at the track’s end:
Go find my love
Go tell him
Tell my love I love him.
If Saskia’s distinctive voice sounds familiar, no doubt you’ve heard her on sessions by Stormzy, Labrinth, and other acclaimed acts. She counts Lana Del Ray, Jordan Rakei, Glass Animals, and other genre-blending acts among her stylistic kin.
More new music will be available this winter, including an EP—and Nyx assures us of “more songs brewing in the cauldron.”
