14 January 2013 - 0 Comments

Nina McSweeney already has a long list of successes to her name - from Concord Dawn collaborations, to stellar opening slots and performances on the infamous stages of the Monterey Jazz festival, Homegrown and Rhythm & Vines festivals. Now, the ethereal songstress is finally stepping out on her own with the release of her debutalbum The Bitter Sea on February 15.

Hauntingly beautiful, The Bitter Sea has a cinematic edge, which lends to a genre that can only be described as ‘Creep Folk’.  

Drawing inspiration from Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and his portrayal of "a woman lost in a fog", her songs take some dark and unexpected twists and turns, with compelling melodies leading the listener through waves of string section improvisation and rhythms which stagger like some crazed Harryhausen stop motion creation.

The Bitter Sea was co-produced by McSweeney and Brendon Kahi and recorded at the Lab by Olly Harmer over a period of four days, on a budget less than a White Stripes album.

In keeping with her strongly self directed DIY aesthetic and vision, Nina conceptualized her own photo shoot and set design for the album artwork, laboriously crafting hundreds of intricate paper flowers by hand. Local artist Erica Lack created the delicate and multi-layered paper cut illustrations.

As one half of the eclectic dirty delta blues duo, Bat Country, the voice behind Concord Dawn tracks such as ‘Easy Life’ and recently released single ‘The River’, Nina is no stranger to the airwaves. Couple this with her performances at those big festivals, and opening for the likes of The Black Crowes, Silverchair and Powderfinger, and Nina McSweeney’s debut release has all the etchings of a star on the rise.

In fact, one of her songs off the album ‘Someone Told Me’ has already been picked up for the new Honda campaign, and George FM DJ, Dan Aux, has released a remix of her first single ‘Lost in Translation’, available here.

The Bitter Sea is available from all good record stores andonline from February 15.

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