Vashti Bunyan has announced a 20th anniversary reissue of her Max Richter-produced second album, Lookaftering, to coincide with her 80th birthday. The new expanded edition, out February 7 via FatCat Records, includes the original studio album along with a second LP featuring demos, an alternate take, and a live performance. It also contains sleeve notes from Bunyan, Richter, Devendra Banhart, and FatCat’s Dave Howell, as well as a 16-page lyric booklet with paintings by Bunyan’s daughter Whyn Lewis. Listen to ‘If I Were (Demo)’ and take a look at the full tracklist below.
The Lookafternig demos were originally recorded between 2001 and 2005 by Bunyan at her home studio, where she accompanied herself on electric and acoustic guitar and experimented with accordion, piano, strings, pipe organ, harmonium, and recorders. Additionally, the live rendition of ‘Lately’ was recorded at an early “comeback” gig in LA in 2006, orchestrated to match the album version.
“It felt like a community project; a family of people coming together,” Richter reflected on the making of the album, which also involved Joanna Newson, Adem Ilhan, Robert Kirby, and members of the band Vetiver.
“The beautiful photograph of Max in the studio playing wine glasses with his young daughter’s violin bow, brings it all back to me – how very fortunate I have been,” Bunyan remarked.
Devendra Banhart added: “Lookaftering is a quiet prayer for a world left behind, a remembrance of a world that could have been but never was, a Lookforwarding to a world that may yet still be… As ethereal and haunted as these eleven songs may be, they are also rooted in the earthly magic of wisdom born from experience. Something so rare and honest it’s nearly otherworldly in its total human-ness.”
Read our interview with designer dlt (Dave Thomas), who worked on every record Vashti Bunyan put out in the second phase of her career.
Lookaftering – Expanded Edition Tracklist:
1. Lately
2. Here Before
3. Wayward
4. Hidden
5. Against The Sky
6. Turning Backs
7. If I Were
8. Same But Different
9. Brother
10. Feet Of Clay
11. Wayward Hum
12. Lately (Live, The Echo, Los Angeles, 2006)
13. Here Before (Demo, 2005)
14. Wayward (Alternative take, 2005)
15. Hidden (Demo, 2002)
16. Against The Sky (Demo, 2004)
17. Turning Backs (Demo, 2003)
18. If I Were (Demo, 2001)
19. Same But Different (Demo, 2005)
20. Brother (Demo, 2002)
21. Feet Of Clay (Demo, 2002)
