Talent is something people just have. One person can be born with the vocal chords another has to train for decades to acquire. Andreya Triana has been blessed with a uniquely delicate voice, but her debut album Lost Where I Belong is not only a product of that talent.

Plenty of gifted performers could have found themselves in the studio with Flying Lotus or under the wings of Bonobo by a combination of talent and chance, and then stopped trying. If circumstances had them in some of the finest company in music, surely they could just continue to ride whatever wave that got them there?

That is where Triana differs. Her debut could have been a Bonobo-produced masterpiece with her vocals on every track. But it’s not. Sure, he produced the whole thing, but the English champion of obscure noises found himself in new clothes; a wonderfully personal soul outfit, sown by Triana herself.

Bonobo’s tracks are more contained than we are used to, fitted to Triana’s clinical songwriting. Strings follow the piano that follows the guitar and the bass of the intro, kind of thing. Live instrumentation trumps scattered samples. Not everywhere, of course; single ‘A Town Called Obsolete‘ is built on quirky sounds that resemble instruments, pieced into a melody on one of the album’s more upbeat offerings.

But as admirable and exciting as it is that Triana forced a sonic readjustment from Ninja Tune’s golden child, her own songwriting is the other crucial component to the debut. ‘Daydreamers‘ jumps a few centuries back just to deal with escapism or futile attempts at it, with the paper thin, cracked vocals complementing the slow arrangement. ‘X,’ which concludes the album, continues in a similar vein, but a more personal one. We end at a point where Triana’s fragility, personal and vocal, is most exposed.

Lost Where I Belong is a succinct debut album, and despite the title, Triana sounds entirely at home on her excursion into heartfelt, organic soul. The album prompts fantasies of how Triana’s next project might turn out – we should probably expect a new and exciting direction.

Words Sven Carlsson
Peep our interview and exclusive photo shoot with Andreya here.
Buy Lost Where I Belong