The last music we featured from Nick Hudson, frontman of Brighton-based art rock quartet The Academy of Sun, was in February 2020, when we premiered their track ‘The Parts That Need Replacing’ off their much-acclaimed April-released album The Quiet Earth.

Since then, Big Takeover writer Dave Franklin spoke to Hudson last summer about the band, his solo material, and how the Covid-19 lockdown was affecting him in an interview at this site.

So, it was a great surprise to learn that Hudson is gearing up for a new solo album. A somewhat calmer affair than his four-piece, it is no less wonderful. Having had a listen to the full offering, it’s clear that listeners are in for a treat when it eventually becomes available.

For now, we present two teasers of the beauty that’s to come. The first is a trailer of ‘Surkov’s Dream’, the first official single, which drops on February 29. The second is a live rendition of another track coming on this album – ‘There is No Such Thing as You’.

Font Of Human Fractures is Hudson’s first solo studio album since Ganymede In A State Of War (2016). Recorded and mastered at Church Road Studios by Paul Pascoe (Barry Adamson, Beat Hotel), these are neo-classical torch songs, banishing rituals, and searing ballads, scored for piano and two violins, underlined with gothic electronica, with dramatic cameos and curveballs.

The new solo release is a ruminative melting pot from the point of view of a queer man in his late thirties. It is like a dialogue with his younger self, negotiating himself free of toxic programming and banishing the inhibitions that can blight, dull, and render impotent the best of us.

Musically, Hudson is influenced by Coil, Kate Bush, Laibach, Danny Elfman, Nico and Scott Walker. His vast output also encompasses painting, film, and he has just completed his first novel.

Hudson has also collaborated with Wayne Hussey (The Mission) and Matthew Seligman (Bowie, Tori Amos, Morrissey), as well as members of NYC’s Kayo Dot, David Tibet (Current 93), Asva and Canadian queercore icon GB Jones. As The Academy Of Sun, he has also collaborated with Massive Attack’s Shara Nelson. Having toured 3 continents, highlights include appearances with Mogwai, Toby Driver and Keith Abrams of Kayo Dot, and Timba Harris (Mr Bungle, Amanda Palmer).

Font Of Human Fractures is a kaleidoscopic and emotionally transparent document of the search for self-worth – and ultimately love – in a thorny, unevenly-stacked world. On April 30, this record will be released on vinyl and also digitally everywhere, including Bandcamp and Spotify. Already on February 24, the first single should be revealed.

While we’re on the theme of Nick Hudson, do also check out his 2016 album ‘Ganymede In a State of War’:

NICK HUDSON / THE ACADEMY OF SUN
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