Yorkshire-based folksinger and guitarist Chris Brain’s fourth coming album, Red Sun Rising, replaces the wide optimism of last year’s New Light with a sense of knowing, yet still manages to focus on the brightness of life and the idea of new beginnings and freshness with the rising of the sun.
As the record develops, the feeling of natural repetition through the guitar arrangements comes through, with additional instruments adding points of difference and flourishes of colour throughout. Take the lovely Kinds of Kindness: Chris is an accomplished fingerpicker with a solid technique reminiscent of stalwarts like Burt Jansch and Nick Drake, and here his piece is a tightly picked refrain that combines played notes with harmonics, giving the guitar sound a complex yet reassuring presence. Owen Spafford’s violin adds slices to offset Emma Gerrett’s gorgeous lilting clarinet and Natalie Wildgoose’s spare piano, giving the song a spot on balance of light and shade, emphasised by Chris’s melancholy-tinged vocals.
There is a philosophical character to Chris’s writing here and a quietness to his singing; a sense of remaining present and finding the beauty in now. This is clear on Morning’s Relief, a simple solo piece accompanied by the sounds of magpies clacking and other birds singing, the importance of birds being a common fixture in Chris’s music. Here he sings of the beginning of a new day, the ‘rising of sense / It is the dawning of me / Just for this moment let me be.’
A focus on presentness is there again on the more upbeat sounding Still Waiting, which uses violin, Tom Orrell’s electric bass (Huw V Williams also plays double bass on the album) and Sam Newham’s drums to embellish a simple message: ‘While you’re waiting, all is moving on / Still you’re waiting for your day to come.’
Simplicity through life is considered again on Big Hill, one of the prettiest songs here and one that benefits from Natalie Wildgoose’s backing vocals along with her delicate piano playing. Celebrating the joys of the outdoors and the pure joy of swimming in a natural landscape, this music is a tonic to much of what is taking place every day and a reminder of the importance of simple pleasures.
Elsewhere, the title track brings in the moist notes of Joe Harvey-Whyte’s pedal steel, a new sound for Chris and one that adds broad sweeps of light to a tightly played piece that focuses on repetition, painting a picture of life passing by with each sunrise and sunset.
This approach to repetition and minimalism on Red Sun Rising suits Chris’s pastoral sound perfectly; the patterns and cycles of life and nature are reflected effectively through his adept guitar playing, and the idiosyncrasies of the natural world are beautifully represented through his considerate guest musicians. Chris just keeps getting better; Red Sun Rising is a beautiful album.
Red Sun Rising (May 1st, 2026) Big Sun Records
Pre-Order: https://linktr.ee/chrisbrainmusic
Live Version of Big Hill (with Natalie Wildgoose)
TOUR DATES
23 April — Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
06 May — Manchester, Gullivers
07 May — Hebden Bridge, The Trades
09 May — Glasgow, Glad Café
10 May — Edinburgh, Voodoo Room
12 May — Newcastle, Cumberland Arms
13 May — York, The Crescent
16 May — Nottingham, The Grove
17 May — Oxford, Common Ground
18 May — Sheffield, The Greystones
21 May — Brighton, Prince Albert
22 May — London, Moth Club
23 May — Bristol, Folk House
24 May — Birmingham, Kitchen Garden Cafe
27 May — Liverpool, Kazimier Stockroom
30 May – Fire In The Mountain Festival
04 June – Belfast, The Duncairn
06 June – Galway Folk Festival
07 June — Dublin, Whelans
22 July – Cornish Bank