about

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]
The Parts / The Empty Arms ★★★★☆
Going Underground – Stewart Smith [The List 15/04/2020]
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.
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