Gifu, Japan-based artist Tsubasa Lucid has caught my attention through an album based a little closer to home.
By Graeme Smith
Born and raised in Japan Lucid spent two years between November 2023 and November 2025 in London. It’s in that city that his new album Leave Her to Heaven, Leave Him in London takes place.
The record acts as a kind of diary. The tracks on it unfold chronologically, capturing a period and place. London looms heavily over the record, right from the captured audio of a departing train and passing ambulance in experimental, atmospheric opener Rest in Tower Hamlets. The track is a something of dense beginning, not necessarily representative of the record as a whole but providing an intriguing way in.
It’s in the searching Pomegranate is Blood that we get our first vocals. They are smooth and understated, delivering poetic, searching, and image-laden lyrics against a backdrop of acoustic guitar. After the first chorus, the passion and drama ramp up.
Lucid’s sound is one that is timeless yet also feeling outside of the time continuum which is ironic given the chronological order of the tracks. It’s more a diary of feelings than events, and he expresses those profound feelings through a variety of styles ranging from the modern to the throwback.
Born Broken is a little brighter than Pomegranate is Blood but still tinged with sadness. The Ambrosial Scent of Your Poison is awash with noir sensibilities and wandering guitar solos. A live rendition of jaunty punk of The Elevator provides a moment of intimacy; there are a few live or demo-like tracks on the album which gives it a sense of the immediate.
Notably Leave Her to Heaven features another artist which we’ve been celebrating. In The Graveyard is a haunting duet with Liya Shapiro, a London-based singer-songwriter who graced our pages a couple of times in 2025. The pair’s voices work well together and it’s a highlight.
Its experimentation, candidness, and direct tackling of emotional themes, including heartbreak, trauma and isolation, make this an interesting album well worth getting lost in. It brings the city of London, and Lucid’s time there, to captivating life.
If you want to keep up to date with what Tsubasa Lucid is doing, you can by following him on Spotify, Bandcamp, YouTube and Instagram.
Leave Her to Heaven, Leave Him to London is out now, and you can listen to it below.
Supported by Musosoup #SustainableCurator
