about - L U K I

Photo credit: Audrey Bizouerne

Luki is a singer, pianist and synth player based in Glasgow. She began her musical career by accident in her late twenties, after making a soundscape for a toilet at a party and realising – quite suddenly – that everything before had been a mistake.

‘Luki’s music sounds like it should be in a mysterious, enrapturing film – it’s narrative driven, evocative, and with delicate touches of the surreal’ (Pink Wafer).

Her ‘witchy soprano, elegant piano and synth create a sense of time and place out of joint, as if Delia Derbyshire and Brian Eno set up shop in an Edwardian parlour’ (Stewart Smith, The List)

REVIEWS:

The Parts / The Empty Arms

Byron Coley – WIRE [Issue 435, May 2020]

Luki is the solo project of Glasgow based vocalist/ pianist Lucy Duncan. There’s a cassette I haven’t heard but this is her first ‘spinner’, a lathe in the excellent series created by this great UK label. Working with producer Micha Rivers, the two tunes on this record take a fairly straight ballad approach that bends a bit at its edges. When you pay close attention, you hear unorthodox musical detailing and lyrics that are not as forthright as their surface appears. In a way it recalls the old Greaves/ Belgvad/ Herman LP Kew.Rhone, although I don’t suppose it’s an actual puzzle. Just a virtual one. Cool.

The Parts / The Empty Arms ★★★★☆

Going Underground – Stewart Smith [The List 15/04/2020]

Following last year’s tape on GLARC, this double A sided 8″ single on Sonido Polifonico offers the first fruits of Luki aka Lucy Duncan’s collaboration with producer Micha Rivers. Crystalline acoustic guitar and lambent synths grace ‘The Parts’, and detuned piano bringing a woozy blue tinge to the torch song ‘Empty Arms’. Duncan’s remarkable voice comes through more clearly than ever, extemporising in her upper range like an English Mary Margaret O’Hara then knocking us out with her alto.

Luki – Wisps

Nick Potter [Pink Wafer 11.06.2019]

Another project released on GLARC, Luki is the solo project of Lucy Duncan. She’s a singer and pianist based in the city and this first release, Wisps, is absolutely stunning. Deadly simple, with just piano, voice and synthesizer, Luki carries the songs with restraint and her mesmerising vocals. After an opener sung in Mandarin (Tiānyá gē – from the 1937 film Street Angel), ‘Gelsomina’ is a real highlight. Showcasing the minimal arrangement that carries through the rest of the EP, just after the chorus line a strange synthesizer sound – part trumpet, part voice, part Theremin – appears suddenly. This is perhaps a perfect summation of how much Luki’s music sounds like it should be in a mysterious, enrapturing film – it’s narrative driven, evocative, and with delicate touches of the surreal.

Listen to Wisps by Luki.

Luki – Wisps ★★★★☆

Stewart Smith [The List 04.02.2019]

This intriguing song collection from Lucy Duncan, aka Luki, inhabits an uncanny realm, where the English mysticism of Kate Bush and Angela Carter meets jazz and world cinema. Duncan’s witchy soprano, elegant piano and synth create a sense of time and place out of joint, as if Delia Derbyshire and Brian Eno had set up shop in an Edwardian parlour. The inspired song selection ranges from English ballads like ‘Sweet Suffolk Owl’ and ‘The Lover’s Ghost’ to American Songbook classics like Kurt Weill & Langston Hughes’ ‘Lonely House’, and the Italian waltz of Nino Rota’s ‘Gelsomina’. The highlight is ‘Tiānyá gē (The Wandering Song)’ a beautiful song from the 1937 Chinese film Street Angel, sung exquisitely by Duncan.

Contact and booking enquiries: luki@lukilukiluki.com