Music Week’s Ben Homewood on Tree House’s Into The Ocean...

Earlier this summer, I saw Tree House play on a boiling hot night. Their guitarist was “away on business”, said American-born frontman Will Fortna, who taught himself keyboard in a windowless loft in Brooklyn, New York. What followed was a stripped-back performance that allowed the nuance of Fortna’s disco-flavoured indie-pop songs to shine. Airy and light, tracks such as Nonsense and Warm Blue Feeling are built on guitar, zapping electronics, drum machine and melodic low end. There’s purity and exuberance in Fortna’s delivery, so much so that he comes across like a wide-eyed kid delighting in experiencing something for the first time. Both songs appear on Tree House’s Into The Ocean EP, available now on Brighton-based tape label Memorials Of Distinction. Arthur Russell is the most discernible influence on these six tracks (and indeed the project’s name), but Fortna coaxes you into a musical world that’s all his own. By the time the silky string arrangements introduce the closing title track, an atmosphere of pure bliss pervades. It was much the same at that gig, as Tree House chilled the room into a stupor.

Ben Homewood, Senior staff writer, Music Week

For more stories like this, and to keep up to date with all our market leading news, features and analysis, sign up to receive our daily Morning Briefing newsletter