Sivu recently returned with the “Childhood House”, his first new material in over two years and an introduction to his forthcoming second album, which will be released this summer (Square Leg Records). Having toured extensively in support of his debut release Something On High, including shows with London Grammar and Bombay Bicycle Club. James will play an intimate run of warm-up dates in May, which are also on sale today.

Mixing piano, haunting vocals and ethereal electronics, ‘Childhood House’ looks back on the relative safety of your family home, and considers how far you’ve come (also asking if you’d have known where life would take you thereafter, whether you’d have ever left). It’s a starkly beautiful introduction to Sivu’s second album, with ‘Childhood House’ written in the most barren terrains of northern Scotland and finished back in London with long-term producer and now label-partner Charlie Andrew (alt-J and Marika Hackman).

‘Childhood House’ is the first glimpse of a record which addresses the big questions in intimate ways, driven by a sense of experimentation inspired by the likes of Radiohead’s Amnesiac or Wild Beasts’ Smother. From the empty spaces to the exquisite orchestration, here are songs about self-doubt, starting again, and the strains on mind (and body) as you grow older. Yet in contrast with the existential questioning across ‘Something On High’, there’s also a sense of the self-assured; of growing happy with who you are and what you have, instead of constantly searching for a great unknown.

Sivu
UK Tour Dates

3rd May – Brighton, Latest Music Bar
4th May – Norwich, Birdcage
5th May – Cambridge, Unitarian
8th May – London, Rosemary Branch
9th May – Bristol, The Gally
10th May – Manchester, Eagle Inn
11th May – Birmingham, The Ort Café