Sweet Gum Tree

French singer-songwriter Arno Sojo came to debut his new project of beautifully orchestrated ballads and from the opening chord to the encore’s final note he presented a tour de force of deliciously dreamy pop perfection. Switching between guitars and piano, the soft-voiced vocalist was backed by a fluid band including The Church’s Marty Willson-Piper and a dynamic string section that lifted the already well-crafted songs to a euphoric level. Among the many highlights of woozy psychedelia and lush soundscapes, all sung in English, were the piano and strings-led ‘The Vulnerable Almighty’ and the gorgeous Gallic Prefab Sproutness of ‘Astray’. Pure class.

Komedia, 18 February 2014
Rating:
Steve Clements