LPCDreissues: Looking forward to the past

Richard Soutar’s Lavender Daydreams is a hazy, homespun American psych-folk rarity from 1976, the kind of private-press album that feels deeply personal, unpolished in the best possible way, and guided by its own inner logic.

Rather than chasing a heavy underground sound throughout, the album drifts between gentle acoustic reflections, light psychedelic colouring, melodic folk-rock and occasional electric flashes. The atmosphere is intimate and dreamlike, with songs that feel as though they were shaped from late-night thoughts, outdoor reveries and private spiritual experiences.

Tracks such as A Place In The Sun, Falling Angels and Soaring set a softly lysergic tone, while Lord And Master, Sunny Days and Here We Are bring a more inward-looking, reflective side to the record. The title track closes the album with the same gentle, meditative quality that gives the whole LP its particular charm.

Originally a very limited self-released record, Lavender Daydreams has become a cult item among collectors of U.S. private-press psych, acid folk and mellow underground rock. This Void Records edition, catalogue number VOID67, brings the album back on vinyl with insert, making this fragile and unusual 1970s recording available again to a wider circle of psych and folk-rock listeners.

1. A Place In The Sun
2. Falling Angels
3. Lord And Master
4. Electra
5. Pavement Pioneer
6. Soaring

1. Old Times
2. Sunny Days
3. Here We Are
4. A Stranger
5. Take Me Darling
6. Lavender Daydreams