Bruce Soord - Luminescence (LP)

Founding member & chief songwriter of his prolific band The Pineapple Thief, Bruce Soord’s output & profile has grown substantially over the last decade. In addition to his own musical compositions, his exceptional production skills & coveted surround sound mixing has seen him delivering mixing work for acts including TesseracT, Opeth & Jethro Tull.Inspired by the idea of finding inner peace, his latest solo outing ‘Luminescence’ explores the difficulty of living in the metropolis of the modern world. Born from days exploring various cities whilst on tour, tracks from the album feature recordings from Soord’s various wanderings captured on his field recorder.With acoustic guitar at the centre of the album, tracks such as ‘Lie Flat’ appear simple on the surface yet reveal Soord’s unmistakable intricacies throughout. There’s a variety of styles within though. The album’s lead track & single ‘Dear Life’ effortlessly encapsulates Soord’s unique sense of poised melancholy, while ‘Nestle In’ flirts with electronica. ‘Olomouc’s’ rousing strings work against the acoustic backdrop of Soord’s guitar to paint a vivid picture of the stillness that the record describes.Recorded between January & June of 2023, the album was cut at Soord Studios with additional strings recorded at RAK Studio 3 in London, featuring contributions from Andrew Skeet, long-time member of The Divine Comedy & musical producer of the orchestration on many films/tv shows from Netflix’s smash hit “Black Mirror” to David Attenborough’s “Green Planet” & “Dynasties II”. On ‘Luminescence’ Andrew arranged & conducted a six-piece string section.The artwork has been provided by Carl Glover at Aleph Studios (Porcupine Tree/Marillion) with the mastering handled by The Pineapple Thief’s Steve Kitch. ‘Luminescence’ was engineered by Bruce Soord.