Listen to Lydia Ainsworth’s Wriggly, World-Building Debut Album

Spaces, landscapes, worlds: the most enchanting music builds them all, molecule by molecule. Toronto-via-Brooklyn producer/singer Lydia Ainsworth's debut album Right from Real, which gathers material from her first EP together with a clutch of new songs, takes an zoomed-in approach to world-building—her songs wriggle like amoeba under a microscope, holding secrets only a few millenniums can unlock. Sheets of shifting texture part for Ainsworth's searching vocals, cavernous echoes follow celestial chimes, and a wing-like flutter breezes on through. Lest I get carried away, it's important to note that these are hugely accessible, vocal-led, upbeat songs. Ainsworth emotes with all the urgency of a seasoned chart-topper but it's her eye for detail that seals the deal. She borrows from folk, pop, modern classical and the dancefloor, pulling in elements to create a vital, vibrant vision of the future, or maybe the present—if you look hard enough. Arbutus will release Ainsworth's Right from Real on September 30th.