Luca Little album release in Winterthur

Luca Little  is back! About 3 years after his last album “Lion” as well as a 2 years concerts break, he released on Friday his new work “The Year”. Well, a part of it…

The two release showcases (first one on Thursday, second one on Saturday) took place at Archbar in Winterthur. The two floor location is lying practically next to the train station.  Downstairs being set up a bit more modern, the upper floor is spreading a lot of charm with the small stage, the various seats and decorations. Next to both entries you can sit outdoor. At the back entrance there are palette lounges and fairy lights are hanging. Especially in summer very cosy.

Luca Little started the concert evenings with some new songs, ahead of them all “Carnival Of Life” and “The Only One”. Two very rhythmic and catchy songs. He was supported by Thomas Feierabend on the keys. He’s with Luca since the beginning.

Yes, next Year Luca is already celebrating his 10 years anniversary. 2008 he started with his music and “the Year” is now the 4th album. He got my attention via Twitter. The first time live I’ve seen Luca Little then in 2012 as a support act of 77 Bombay Street. Some of you maybe too?

Also part of the release evenings were Fernanda Ramos for backing vocals and Matthias Kräutli on drum pad. Whilst Matthias Kräutli is standing in for Luca’s actual drummer, I’m happy that Fernanda (btw, go and listen to her own band Cilia Hunch) is still a part of the band. She’s part of it since the last album “Lion”. Her and Luca’s voice harmonize wonderfully. But not only the two of them sound great together. When the band is singing for several voices together, you get goose bumps.

With “Open Doors” they played the first new ballade, what was followed by the new “Forever” and “Like A Satellite” later in the set. In-between the setlist was peppered with older, known songs. These were amongst others the earworm “Hello”, “Hurts The Most” [Video here] or even one of my favourites, “Artifacts Of Love”.

The band left the stage when Luca unplugged his guitar for “There’s Something Wrong” and “What Are We Doing” and came down into the audience. He played the songs acoustically. This was even more beautiful on the second evening in-between the standing tables with small tea lights.

Eventually in the middle of the concert Luca revealed the bad news. What I’ve heard as rumours only with others, is a fact with him:

There won’t be any CDs!

Luca Little is releasing his new album “The Year” only in digital – as a download on iTunes or at the Playstore as well as streaming, e.g. via Spotify. Although I have seen myself already sitting in the train on the way home flicking through the booklet. I originally even wanted to bring my old discman, forgot to test it though. Yes, there won’t be any physical copy or the album anymore – neither on CD, nor vinyl. Therefore also no booklet with pictures and lyrics 🙁

Additionally to this: Luca Little is releasing the album in “episodes”. He actually was a big fan of series, like “Breaking Bad” and “Game Of Thrones” (doubt that’s the reason though..?! 😉 ). So with the release of “The Year” on Friday, there were only released the two songs so far. They are “The Only One” and “Like A Satellite”. it’s when keyboarder Thomas mentioned after the concert, there were even better songs on the album. Yes, thanks Thomas, that’s not really helping in this case 😉 My favourite of these two songs is “The Only One” by the way. [Video here]

Well, it doesn’t really feel like an album release (at least not for the moment yet?). But even these news left a lump in the stomach and I got to get used to it first, they were two wonderful evenings. I am happy  Luca Little is back with new music and playing concerts again. He’ll even travel to Iceland for one next month.

As an encore the Stromae cover “Papaoutai” followed. Usually Luca isn’t singing in French. But this was, back when he played some concerts in the Philippines,a little obligation for one of the performances. Well, to sing one song in French. They ended the about 1 hour taking concerts each with “Autumn in May” then.

I also was a little worried about the new songs, because many musician and bands’ songs became a lot more electronic recently. This didn’t happened and I like the heard songs a lot. Though, Luca mentioned that one of the songs on this album goes into this direction.

So we have to/can still be curious about the new album. Every few months more songs will be released off “The Year”. Until then it means to keep visiting the concerts and hoping that Luca will present more of the new songs next to the already played ones.

What do you think about not getting any CDs (or vinyl) anymore but only digital?
Or are you getting everything in digital only anyway and because of you CDs are getting disposed? 😉

The download- and streaming links of Luca Little’s new album “The Year” you can find on www.lucalittle.com. Go and have a listen. On the website all the concert dates are listed as well.