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Robert Rorison releases his astounding debut album recording through Marketstall Records under his new all-purpose nom-de-plume Blue Balloon. The release is limited to an initial run of 500 numbered, hand-packaged, signed compact discs.

“Hearts Are Pretty Heavy” is an album several years in the making during which time Robert not only lost a longterm relationship, a couple of jobs and several friends as he pursued the sound he had in his head, but also suffered mental health issues that Rob has had to fight hard to overcome. Rorison is not fucking about when it comes to his music.

His early days as a beat-matching hip-hop DJ (Wu Tang Clan were his watershed moment) led him to a lyrical complexity and rhythmic intonation that are simultaneously worthy of both your admiration and devotion. ‘I see little lyric shaped holes in the world I feel like I can fill…the words are a lot like puzzles I have to work into a song’ says Rob. This rings ever more true as the lyrical gymnastics and lithe poetry of ‘Hearts Are Pretty Heavy’ reveal themselves to the patient listener, gripping you more tightly with every play.

Influenced heavily by hip-hop but having had his head turned by Leonard Cohen, Daniel Johnston and Elliott Smith, Rob spent a long time wending his way through quirky acoustic covers of the likes of Prince, The Cure and even Will Smith before finding his true voice – a clear, heartfelt sigh that can rise to desperation and drop to a tremble in the space of a note.

Having solidified his growing reputation as a master songwriter and performer with support slots for First Aid Kit and Stornoway Rob is now ready to reveal the first document of his heartfelt, heavenly work in the shape of ‘Hearts Are Pretty Heavy’.

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