Blue Film by Lo-Fang

Blue Film, the debut album from Lo-Fang, came out on 4AD in February 2014, and it started life as a mixtape before Matthew Hemerlein fleshed it out into a full-length, a job that took him three years. The spark was a 2011 trip to Cambodia, tagging along with his friend Steve Adams, a director of photography for the National Geographic Channel, where he wrote "#88"; from there he drifted through Tokyo, Bali, London and across America, and the places and people he met seeped into both the words and the instruments.

Hemerlein is a classically trained player who picked up the violin at five, and he plays violin, cello, bass, guitar and piano across the record, stitching them into hushed, slow-burning pop with a late-night glow. "When We're Fire" is the one that reached the countdowns. 4AD had signed him in 2013, after his lyrics first earned him a publishing deal.

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