Solo

It's been a long time 'between drinks' for award winning New Zealand musician Derek Lind. 13 years after recording his last album, '12 Good Hours of Daylight', comes his emotional and intimate new acoustic double-album, SOLO - released on the second anniversary of his wife's passing.

Two years ago Lind was about to start recording his seventh album when his wife of 35 years suddenly died. The music, the writing and the painting all stopped as he fell into a dark period of grief.

SOLO talks of pain and loss, and beautifully tells the story of much of Lind's journey over the past two years. He finds a way to universalise the deep emotional turmoil that has followed him into his music.

SOLO features lyrically rich storytelling, set to live acoustic arrangements that together help recreate emotional touch-points. Listeners will find moments of empathy and commonality as they traverse the twin discs that make up SOLO.

It's an intimate, acoustic affair with no complicated arrangements or studio-effects on offer, and Lind steers clear of musical trickery and verbose wordsmithery.

The sad-songs on this album are not purely cathartic songs or self-pitying outbursts, but rather touch upon universal heart and soul experiences of loss, death and separation. Derek makes it easy for people to find themselves in these songs.

Lind (vocals and guitar) has assembled a band that features an impressive line up of local musicians and close friends including APRA Silver Scroll winner Guy Wishart (guitar and banjo), Alan Brown (Hammond A100) and Glenn Ross Campbell (Weissenborn Lap-slide).

The emotional tenor of the band playing live in the studio is superb, with Campbell's lap-steel capturing the mood, providing a musical touch stone and giving a satisfying cohesion to the listeners' ear.

Lind is no household name, but he has a significant pedigree. With two New Zealand music awards, and six albums under his belt, this latest album was recorded in August 2015 at Neil Finn's Roundhead Studios in Auckland, New Zealand.