Astral Gray is the brainchild of Graham Anthony Nunn, the Brighton-based multi-instrumentalist and producer. When the pandemic hit last year, Nunn departed Kentish dream-pop band Tokyo Tea Room, and is striking out alone into the world of solo artist- dom.
His debut album Lust and Eternal Despair Under a New Age Moon, released in August 2020 established Nunn as a force de majeure in his own right. Without the help of gigs and live performances to bolster the album’s promotion, lead single Only In Dreams garnered numerous online streams.
Nunn’s love of the macabre and penchant for eerie melodies cuts through the din of the usual reverb drenched dream-pop that is so recurrent in today’s indie landscape. There’s a real thought-out craft in what Nunn does, having spent the entirety of lockdown obsessively writing and honing his output.
As lockdown projects go, this one has legs. Nunn has carved out a world that is purely his own with the cerebral soundscapes he composes and produces. The brace of singles released at the end of 2020 were testament to this - although a project in its infancy, Astral Gray can be seen moving through the gears with You’ll Make It Through and There’s More Than Meets The Eye. Now with a back catalogue behind him, the musical depth of which is something many artists never achieve in their entire careers, Nunn is planning his latest release.
Song for song, his second album La Dee Dah contains enough hook-power to give Abba a run for their money. With harmonies quivering over mostly stripped back acoustic guitar, bass and drums, emotion oozes from the pores. The tracks don’t clamour for attention like on Lust and Despair, rather they drift gracefully over the listener, taking them on a stroll across idyllic green landscapes. It’s in these moments of simple beauty when a guitar line suddenly stabs - an effective counterpoint to the sonic bliss.
‘Visions of Happiness’ and ‘I Was Wrong About You’ produce instant, ethereal dream like relief featuring backing vocals from the NME acclaimed singer- songwriter, Honey Gentry.
Taking musical nods from T-Rex, White Album-era Beatles and Steely Dan, on the production side of things Nunn is operating apart from modern contemporaries. Having recorded the album entirely at his home-studio in Brighton, Nunn favours the stripped back production. There are moments when La Dee Dah feels like a forgotten treasure trove of seventies pyschedlia, but for the most part Nunn plays a crazed alchemist; taking cues from the past and melding it in his own original image. Composed last summer during lockdown, the album reflects themes of isolation and longing. However the main take away of Lah Dee Dah is Nunn’s ever pervasive optimism as he urges people to look to future with faith.