AtiBlog: A New Discovery: Kelsey Lu

Recently I am spending a lot of my time to make new musical discoveries, especially from the younger generations. Believe me there is a great deal of innovation, experimentation and authenticity going on with these young artists. I think it is time for us (members of relatively older generations) to give up the nostalgic discourses on creativity based on retro references.
Everyday I hear very fine examples of new musical efforts, some successful and mostly not. But what is the definition of success anyhow?
Let's not judge the adventures of these young artists by the standards the industry has been compelling for a long time. This really limits our artistic vision and psychologically causes us to exclude the musical diversity that is so powerful.

Enough with the philosophy, here is a great artist that popped up on my radar very recently.

She is originally from North Carolina now living in LA. Her parents were also musicians and she was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness that probably had a big impact on her musical adventure. She plays the cello (mostly with a loop pedal).

Her debut was with the Church EP in 2016. Here is a song from this EP.

Dreams by Kelsey Lu

Thanks to her mastery in cello and pure voice she can create haunting and sorrowful songs that are very touching.

Following this 6 song EP, she just issued her first full-length album last week called "Blood" featuring collaborations with Skrillex and Jamie xx. It sounds like a transformation of her EP with a lusher sound stage. The orchestration is rich and elevates her solo sound to a new level.

Here are two songs from the "Blood" album.