Laura Misch’s upcoming album, “Sample the Sky,” is an enchanting journey through London’s wild forests
Did you know that Tom Misch had a sister? I didn’t. Turns out that Laura Misch, Tom’s sister, is just as talented and driven as her brother.
However Laura takes soul music in a different direction than her brother. Still with electronic undertones, but leaning more into the jazz side of things rather than the R&B side like her brother. Added to that, over the past few years, Laura’s music has developed alongside her growing curiosity to reconnect with her surroundings outside. It has led her to seek out new collaborators, as well as leave the confines of self-recording.
In 2021, Laura began outdoor composing experiments including working with engineer Andrea Adriano to build a wearable rig, with a preamp, looper, and modular FX, into a belt. “I primarily have a loop-based saxophone practice,” explains Misch. “I like to play licks, with harmonies gradually building whilst I’m walking.”
She also arranged and composed an immersive outdoor installation in collaboration with the artist Matthew Rosier and NYX, a collective of female, trans, and non-binary singers who manipulate their voices through electronics. Together, they recorded improvised saxophone and voice in Epping Forest, eventually soundtracking large-scale tree projections, mapped onto city buildings in central London. Following the project she joined NYX. These explorations and new connections led her to embrace sound outside of music — ASMR, sensory, textural sound and everyday sound.
Her upcoming album, Sample the Sky, is an enchanting journey through London’s wild edgelands. It responds to nature’s patterns through organic electronic productions, embodied lyrics, wind inspired saxophone, singing, and synthesis all woven into intricately crafted left-field pop songs.
The lead single off the album (“Hide To Seek”) utilizes the record’s only external sample. It was created by sound designer and composer James Bulley who used geophones to record the inside of trees. A method that Laura hopes will capture the internal conversation of the forest.
“The kind of elemental scope of the album really does expand between the earth and the sky,” says Misch. “[‘Hide To Seek’] is about desire and wanting someone to draw out parts of yourself that you’re hiding and how we’re all shaped by this interplay. The forest undergrowth feels like a perfect metaphor for the subconscious mind, and it’s a charged song. I imagined these mycelial threads leading the listener into the album world.”
Look for Sample the Sky to be released sometime early October this year.
Laura Misch – Hide To Seek
