Glasgow’s prodigious talent C Duncan released his critically acclaimed and Mercury Prize nominated debut album Architect earlier this year (last summer in the UK.) Now, his follow-up The Midnight Sun sees the bedroom producer return with a more expansive and experimental second offering, blending electronic elements and sweeping synth sounds with his signature layered vocals and dreamy instrumentation.
The album borrows its name from a Twilight Zone episode aired in 1961, in which the Earth’s orbit has been perturbed, causing it to fall slowly towards the sun. “’The Midnight Sun’ is one of my favorite episodes,” Duncan muses, “it embodies the style of Twilight Zone perfectly, which is often claustrophobic, mysterious and unnerving. Like Architect, The Midnight Sun was recorded and produced entirely by C Duncan in his Glasgow flat, using his bedroom studio set-up and gradually adding each layer and each instrument one at a time. Though time-consuming, the process allowed him to lovingly assemble an intricate and subtle collection of songs that pick up where Duncan began with Architect and move toward a cleaner and more precise vision of the Scottish songwriter’s vision. Duncan has heralded the new album as his “most coherent and concise work, sonically.”
The album’s artwork, a painting of a dimly lit staircase, is also a piece by C Duncan, who also happens to be a skilled painter. “This being another album made from home, I wanted the artwork to parallel that.” elaborates the artist. “The paintings I have done for it are of interiors - the stairwell outside my flat to be precise. I spend a lot of time out there thinking about music, and I wanted there to be a very personal element to the artwork.”
The Midnight Sun is decidedly personal, a testament to why he’s been so lavished with praise in his home country and now, on the precipice of this new release, its clear that Duncan will charm the rest of the world as well.
