Vashti Bunyan – 'If I Were' (Demo)
Photo by Christopher Fernandez
For the 20th anniversary of its release, FatCat Records is prepping an expanded edition of Vashti Bunyan’s 2005 album ‘Lookaftering’.
Vashti is emblematic of quiet resilience and artistic integrity, finding simplicity and creating music that feels both timeless and fresh, Peaceful wisdom, content with your place in the world and your creative contributions while still feeling deeply connected to the earth and the natural world around you.
To mark the announcement of ‘Lookaftering’s’ reissue, a previously unreleased home demo of ‘If I Were’ is made available to stream. It’s a taster of what is to come on the reissue: the opportunity for listeners to sample the initial demos alongside the finished tracks and gain a greater insight into the making of the record.
Undoubtedly the most enigmatic figure on a late-1960s folk circuit that included Fairport Convention, Sandy Denny, and John Martyn, Vashti’s sole album release until 2005 was ‘Just Another Diamond Day’, produced by the éminence grise of the scene, Joe Boyd. Stung by the commercial failure upon its release, Vashti lost faith in the music industry, retreating to rural Scotland. Years of obscurity for both the album and the artist followed.
As with Nick Drake – that other lost soul of the late 60s scene – a small but dedicated band of true believers kept Vashti’s music alive throughout the decades. The album was eventually reissued in 2000, coinciding with the emergence of the so-called ‘freak folk’ movement, led by Devendra Banhart, who contributed notes to the ‘Lookaftering’ reissue. Her music greatly influenced this new generation of folk artists. An early 2000’s re-appraisal followed, prompting documentaries, TV syncs and books. Most pleasing of all, Vashti also re-emerged with new music.
2005’s ‘Lookaftering’ was demoed over several years and completed in Los Angeles with a host of contemporary musicians indebted to her style – Johanna Newsom and Banhart, among others – but also Robert Kirby, a collaborator on Vashti’s debut, over 30 years earlier. ‘Lookaftering’s’ gentle beauty and Vashti’s unique voice stand as a testament to her profound impact on the folk music genre and her ability to craft songs that are both introspective and emotionally evocative.
In the demo version, ‘If I Were’ – among the first to be recorded for the album - is stripped back and shorn of producer Max Richter’s signature embellishments, but the final version has retained all the delicacy of the initial demo. It will appear, along with a host of other demos and outtakes, on the second disc of the ‘Lookaftering’ reissue, the first containing a remastered version of the album. The anniversary edition will be completed by a 16-page booklet featuring essays, liner notes from the artist and Richter, lyrics and paintings by Vashti’s daughter. It will be reissued in February 2025.
Words by Colin Rice
