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The Louisiana, Bristol | 1st May 2025
The Louisiana, Bristol | 1st May 2025
Everyone has experienced the feeling of opening a dusty old photo album and being transported back in time. But, imagine opening the album to find that the images move, shimmer, and smell faintly of warm wood and sun-softened fabric. You can’t quite name the feeling that is broadly known as ‘nostalgia' but it's impossible to ignore.
Everyone has experienced the feeling of opening a dusty old photo album and being transported back in time. But, imagine opening the album to find that the images move, shimmer, and smell faintly of warm wood and sun-softened fabric. You can’t quite name the feeling that is broadly known as ‘nostalgia' but it's impossible to ignore.
This is where Pocket Sun lives – in a space between the tangible and the imagined, where scent and sound bleed into each other and nostalgia becomes something you can breathe in at a gig (other than the usual sweat and sticky beer-soaked floor).
This is where Pocket Sun lives – in a space between the tangible and the imagined, where scent and sound bleed into each other and nostalgia becomes something you can breathe in at a gig (other than the usual sweat and sticky beer-soaked floor).
We first saw Pocket Sun at The Louisiana in Bristol, Pocket Sun, supporting the wild, animated chaos of Dirty Nice – the musical brainchild of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’s Charlie Pelling and Lisbon-based Mark Thompson.
Originally conceived as a one-off experiment for an EP launch – a sensory touchpoint to heighten the show – Pocket Sun’s fragrance ‘Memory Lane’ has since found its own life as a perfume. Created by lead vocalist, Gina Marie Tratt and Guitarist, Laurence Fazakerley-Buglass. The scent was designed to tap into emotion through the back door of the senses, something not often considered at live performances.
It can be, by some accounts, a bit strong, says Gina! But, maybe that’s the point? Given that their sound already feels like an olfactory experience, with slow-dissolving synths, glittery jazz flourishes, and melodies that wrap themselves around you like sunlit fog.
“I’ve always thought it would be amazing to try and touch all the senses - including smell - at a show because I feel it adds that nostalgic element. It was apparently a bit strong, but I think people liked it!.”
“I’ve always thought it would be amazing to try and touch all the senses - including smell - at a show because I feel it adds that nostalgic element. It was apparently a bit strong, but I think people liked it!.”
TALK TO NOBODY - Pocket Sun
Formed in Bristol, the band orbits around Tratt’s kaleidoscopic vision, which is shaped as much by visual art (the banner on this page is just one of many examples of her amazing art pieces) as it is by sound. Her background in ‘70s-style animation bleeds into their aesthetic, giving Pocket Sun performances a textured, almost hand-drawn feel. There’s something deliberate in the way they arrange these sensory components, and it feels like building a memory from scratch.
Their debut album, 'Mirror in Blue Light' (August 2024), captures this hazy push and pull with effortless elegance. Earlier tracks, like 'Wake Up' (produced by Ali Chant and re-released on Kitsuné), hinted at what was coming — music that didn't just sound good, but felt immersive. That Kitsuné co-sign placed them among indie-pop darlings like La Roux (with their classic ‘bulletproof’) and Two Door Cinema Club, but Pocket Sun have always sounded like their own soft orbit — drifting slightly askew from trend or scene, glowing quietly.
Sharing the night with Dirty Nice only made the contrast richer. Where Pocket Sun conjures melancholy and mist, Dirty Nice brings in the absurd, ecstatic, and even comedy – such as passing a crown around throughout the show. It’s a sugar-rush of cartoon chaos and surrealist humour.
They animate, voice, and score their own digital universe, and have gathered an enormous cult following on TikTok and Reddit for it. We have to confess that we similarly came across their animated shorts before their music! The crowd at The Louisiana didn’t just get a gig, they got two strange worlds colliding – the crux of sensory escapism. There’s a quiet confidence in what Pocket Sun is building; sometimes, music doesn’t have to be loud to be felt deeply.
Pocket Sun are set to play live at The Exchange in Bristol on the 15th of May, and it’s not a show you want to miss. As they explain in this clip below, their live performances aren’t just reproductions of their recordings -they reshape their tracks specifically for the stage, offering something new and unexpected every time. It’s the kind of experience that’s hard to capture in words or video, and best felt in the room.
Grab your tickets to Pocket Sun at The Exchange here and we'll see you there!
“"It's hard to let people know what to expect without them actually going and seeing it."”
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