Nick Hudson / The Academy of Sun

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4...according to our Ant on Fri 27 May, 2011.

Don't know a huge amount about this Nick Hudson feller. Considered by the likes of Current 93's David Tibet (who contributes linear notes here), Julian Cope and Meredith Monk as a composer of great skill and talent, Hudson's work is obviously well regarded in the right circles. Personally I struggle with this earnest style of modern classical songwriting. In parts I enjoy the use of ambient and synth drone as a tool for creating tension and atmosphere in a track but an over reliance on morbid subject matter and general compositional bleakness is often to much for me to stomach. Saying that Hudson has some great moments on 'My Antique Son' and he's obviously a talented performer and songwriter. His piano work in particular is very skilled and inevitably captivating. So, if you're a fan of grand and progressive songwriting best suited to the alternative music hall then this one is definitely for you.

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Nick Hudson has been making music under his own name for a number of years. After a
nomadic upbringing, he has settled in the south of England and formed his ensemble The
Academy of Sun, to realize his dynamic compositions. His work has enjoyed accolades from
Julian Cope Current 93’s David Tibet, Meredith Monk, and performance artist Franko B,
amongst others. Classical piano tuition commenced when Nick was aged six, and he has since
added guitar, vocals, percussion and production/arrangement duties to his arsenal of tools.

His new record 'My Antique Son' addresses Nick’s uncommon fascinations with Victorian
opiates, visionary dead poets, and ghosts-as-memories, via progressive song-writing that at
once invokes Jacques Brel, Pink Floyd, Kayo Dot and the compositional drone-doom of Asva
and Sunn O))). in a record that defies categorisation as much as it compels repeated listens. A
visionary, psychedelic British pop record in the lineage of Kate Bush’s ‘Hounds of Love’ and
Talk Talk’s ‘Spirit of Eden’, Nick’s record has been already highly acclaimed by Current 93’s
David Tibet, who has contributed a foreword to the liner notes.

Nick also composes for film; his most recent score, for the recently completed ‘Godland’ by
director Michael Joseph Salerno which will be released on Kiddepunk Records in the not-too-
distant future..

Flattering Testimonials

'Ambitious, curious and beautiful' - Jamie Stewart (Xiu Xiu)

"Very haunting, lateral, evocative, sidereal. I love it." David Tibet/Current 93

'A beautiful voice' - Meredith Monk