Amy Aytchi releases debut album

Glasgow’s Amy Aytchi has spent the first chapters of her musical story turning profoundly personal experiences into something dreamlike, strange and immersive. Her ethereal indie sound takes cues from dream pop textures and an unusual sensory imagination, with sounds conceived in terms of velvet, candle wax and the crashing force of a fresh wave, resulting in music that feels at once intimate and otherworldly, built for anyone who’s ever felt too much while receiving too little in return.

Emotional intensity ripples throughout Amy’s songwriting, with her work exploring sexuality, pain, femininity and the neurodivergent experience, transforming difficult experiences into highly affecting musical expression. An interest in the occult and strange personal rituals adds another facet to her artistic identity, helping create a world where the everyday can quickly become surreal.

It took considerable courage for Amy to bring that world into public view; severe stage fright had previously made performing a difficult prospect, but she began sharing her music publicly towards the end of 2023. A radio debut on BBC Introducing Scotland with “Weather Forecaster” followed in February 2024, before she opened for Gia Ford later that year. In April 2025, she joined the Scottish tour with Hit The Road, including a headline performance at Accai Records Glasgow.

Now that steadily developing confidence arrives at a significant point with Cyclosis, Amy’s debut concept album and most ambitious release thus far. The record constructs an entire story around a central character, a girl so crushed by the weight of living that she runs into a storm, only to arise with a mysterious illness that transforms her into a tornado. The consequences then become suitably destructive and she wreaks havoc upon the homes of wrongdoers in her small town, turning the force of nature into a metaphorical extension of everything she’s been carrying.

It’s an appropriately fantastical premise for an artist whose music has always found beauty in the strange spaces between reality and imagination. Penned between Glasgow and Stirling, Cyclosis draws on the dream pop sounds of the late 80s and early 90s while remaining firmly tethered to the present. Modern folk influences add another dimension to its alternative pop stylings, giving the album a sense of warmth beneath its more ethereal surfaces. By confronting the things we bury in order to flourish, Amy suggests, you have to rip the roof off the childhood home entirely.

Opening the album with “Harbinger,” featuring Callum Buick Dawson, the album starts with soft spoken word vocals as chiming tones and airy textures form a mesmeric soundscape. With Amy’s fluttering vocalisations drifting in the background, it’s a delicate and subtly intense curtain raiser that perfectly sets up the album. “Orchid Forever” follows with droning tones as Amy’s alluring voice spins folk-inflected melodies carrying heartfelt lyricism above, casting a spellbinding musical experience that gently develops with intricate instrumental elements before gathering pace with rattling drums to deliver a surge of gripping energy.

“Better Woman” serves up a moment of self-inquiry wrapped up in a breezy indie folk sound that flows with lilting rhythmic sway and expressive vocals before building with pattering rhythms and rock-tinged aesthetic. A sense of yarning nostalgia arrives through “Young Girl” which glides with mellow acoustic guitar tones as Amy’s enticing vocal performance floats above to frame her compelling songwriting in a stripped back setting. “Twister” builds an ethereal, brooding atmosphere that appears to reach its own emotional peak, captured in an atmospheric scene of sparse instrumentation and stunning layers of overlapping vocals.

Tracks like “Playing God” lean into a alternative pop sphere where rustling percussion, soothing instrumentation and hushed vocals coalesce while “Forever, It’s All Yours” pairs jangly guitar notes with shuffling drums and choral vocal style to present an engrossing listening experience. Closing the album with “Begin at the End,” woozy textures and laid back guitar strums usher in Amy’s graceful vocal performance to deliver a dreamy and truly enchanting finale to her sensational debut full-length record. With Cyclosis, Amy Aytchi opens the door to a world entirely of her own where emotional turmoil can become weather, buried memories can become destruction and transformation can ultimately become a form of freedom.

Listen to Cyclosis below