Snowpoet: Heartstrings
Edition Records

The UK label on which Snowpoet appears largely issues contemporary jazz, which makes the London-based quintet something of an anomaly when its sound has more in common with dream pop. Led by the creative one-two punch of singer Lauren Kinsella and keyboardist Chris Hyson, Snowpoet has been entrancing listeners with luminous vocals and lustrous arrangements since the release of its 2014 debut EP. Whereas duties are on the one hand equally shared, with Kinsella responsible for lyrics and Hyson production, the music on Heartstrings is credited to Snowpoet, a gesture that makes sense when writing and recording was done in the studio as a collective for the first time. And, in truth, the album's full and rich sound is the product of five individuals, not two: Kinsella and Hyson are the nucleus, but Matt Robinson (piano, synths), Josh Arcoleo (electric bass, saxophone), and Dave Hamblett (drums) are integral too.

As stated, Snowpoet is a group, yet there's no denying the critical part played by Kinsella's voice. She's got one of those to-die-for instruments that more than anything else gives Snowpoet its identity. Some groups are inconceivable without their lead singers—Cocteau Twins (Elizabeth Fraser), Portishead (Beth Gibbons), and Broadcast (Trish Keenan) come to mind—and the same applies here. Kinsella's every gesture commands attention, whether it be her lustrous vocal texture or the artful inflections and emotional shadings of her phrasing, and so captivating are the vocal performances, a conscious effort must be made to attend to the words she's singing (which contend, we're told, with “life, loss, and renewal”), as opposed to how they're delivered.

The tone is quickly established when “tenderness” introduces the set with piano, analogue synth atmospheres, sparse drum accents, and Kinsella's spellcasting. As she coos “Today has been a good day” and the vocal harmonies swell, you'll find yourself helplessly drawn into Snowpoet's web. One easily pictures clubgoers gravitating to the dance floor the moment the soulful allure of “one of those people” fills the air. A couple of songs feature Kinsella's speaking rather than singing the lyrics, and the effect is no less beguiling (oddly enough, the deadpan spoken delivery in “Living to Live” even vaguely calls to mind Kraftwerk's “The Hall of Mirrors”). Snowpoet rarely sounds like anything but itself, but there's no denying it'd be easy to imagine Björk delivering the epic “Host.”

Kinsella's not a jazz singer, but her phrasing and handling of rhythm are often like that of a jazz soloist's (“Our World” and “FOR YOU” cases in point). In that way she recalls Joni Mitchell on albums such as Don Juan's Reckless Daughter, Court and Spark, and The Hissing of Summer Lawns where the singing's at its most free and untethered. Still, as key as the vocal dimension is, Snowpoet gives great attention and care to its arrangements too, and the instrumental backings in these ten songs consistently beguile when the group's sensitivity to timbre and atmosphere is acute. Testifying to the importance of the group's non-vocal side is the inclusion of a pretty piano serenade, “forest_bathing.”

September 2025