Cape Forestier

Julia Stone sees her sixth album with brother Angus as “coming full circle”, and with good reason. Its languid grooves, blissful vocal harmonies and woozy aesthetic recall the duo’s 2007 debut A Book Like This, a tone that was established when Julia first visited Angus at Sugarcane Mountain Studios, his newly built studio in Murwillumbah, New South Wales. “It felt reminiscent of the way we had started, back when we made Chocolates & Cigarettes,” she tells Apple Music. “It had this feeling of being in the living room and just sharing songs. I guess that’s a more traditional singer-songwriter style of storytelling. And Angus has also got the piano from our childhood in the living room, so that feels pretty magic.” The aesthetic of Sugarcane Mountain Studios harks back to the ’70s, a time, says Angus, where musical expression was less restrained by rules and expectations—as was the interior design. “There’s the Wild West of colours in the carpet,” he smiles, “where it’s just plumes of green swirling around with whites popping out, and in the wallpaper you’ve got orange, and it’s kind of clashing.” Though echoing the stripped-back simplicity of their early output, Cape Forestier still boasts a rich tapestry of sounds, such as lush strings (“The Wonder of You”, “No Boat No Aeroplane”), choral backing vocals (“Down to the Sea”) and pedal steel (“The Wedding Song”). A cover of Bob Dylan’s “I Want You” and a truncated rendition of Elvis Presley’s “The Wonder of You” are further rejoinders to their past, with Dylan in particular a staple of their father’s wedding band.