Novo Amor — Biography

Novo Amor is the professional name of Ali John Meredith-Lacey, a Welsh multi-instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, engineer, and sound designer. Known for his delicate falsetto, intimate lyrics, layered acoustic arrangements, and atmospheric production, he has developed a deeply personal musical style that blends indie folk, alternative music, ambient textures, and cinematic sound design.

Although his recordings often feel quiet and minimal, they are built from carefully arranged guitars, piano, strings, percussion, electronic elements, environmental sounds, and heavily processed vocals. This combination gives Novo Amor’s music an expansive emotional quality, allowing small personal experiences to feel connected to landscapes, memory, distance, and change.

His career began with independent recordings in the early 2010s and gained wider attention following the release of the Woodgate, NY EP in March 2014. Since then, Novo Amor has released several acclaimed solo projects, collaborated closely with musician Ed Tullett, toured internationally, and built a dedicated worldwide audience.

Early Life

Ali Lacey was born on August 11, 1991, in Aberystwyth, Wales, and was raised in Llanidloes, a small town surrounded by the landscapes of mid-Wales. Music was present throughout his childhood. His father and brother were both musicians, and instruments were regularly available around the family home.

Lacey initially became interested in music through skateboarding. As a child, he watched skate videos and became fascinated by their soundtracks. The music gradually became more important to him than skateboarding itself. He started with drums before learning guitar and spent much of his teenage life playing, recording, and discovering how songs were constructed.

In an interview, Lacey explained that he started playing guitar around the age of twelve, although drums were his first instrument. His early musical interests included heavier alternative and metal music, which contrasts with the gentle indie-folk sound he would later become known for.

At sixteen, Lacey moved from his small hometown to Cardiff. He studied music technology for approximately five years and spent much of that period recording music and creating cinematic compositions. Learning about production, engineering, arrangement, and sound design gave him the ability to control almost every part of his future recordings.

Rather than working only as a vocalist or guitarist, Lacey developed into a complete studio artist. He learned to perform several instruments, build arrangements, record his own material, mix songs, and create unusual textures from everyday sounds. These abilities became central to the Novo Amor identity.

The Origin of Novo Amor

The Novo Amor project began following an emotionally important period in Lacey’s life. In 2011, he spent time in upstate New York, where he worked briefly as a music teacher and formed a relationship. After returning to the United Kingdom and experiencing the end of that relationship, he used songwriting as a way to process the experience.

The name “Novo Amor” translates approximately as “new love.” It represented an attempt to move forward, create something new, and redirect difficult feelings into music. Lacey returned to his childhood home and invested his earnings from a summer job into microphones, guitars, a banjo, and other recording equipment. He then began producing music in his bedroom.

The quiet environment, emotional circumstances, and memories of rural New York became important influences. Even years later, those landscapes continued to appear throughout his lyrics, production, artwork, and visual storytelling.

Novo Amor was therefore more than a stage name. It became a distinct artistic space through which Lacey could explore emotions and ideas that felt separate from his everyday personality.

First Recordings and Woodgate, NY

Lacey’s earliest release as Novo Amor was the 2012 two-track single commonly associated with “So We Drift” and “Flay.” These recordings introduced the project’s fragile vocals, acoustic instrumentation, and atmospheric approach.

His major breakthrough came with the Woodgate, NY EP, released on March 31, 2014. The four-track project includes “From Gold,” “Weather,” “Cold,” and “Holland.” Lacey wrote, recorded, produced, mixed, and engineered the EP himself, demonstrating the independent creative process that would remain central to his career.

The EP’s title refers to Woodgate, a location in New York connected to the memories and relationship that helped inspire the Novo Amor project. Its songs are intimate but expansive, combining fingerpicked guitars, gentle percussion, layered vocals, and slowly developing arrangements.

“From Gold” became especially important in introducing Novo Amor to a wider audience. Its emotional falsetto and cinematic production established many of the characteristics listeners would associate with his later work.

Collaboration With Ed Tullett

One of the most significant creative relationships in Novo Amor’s career has been his collaboration with English musician and songwriter Ed Tullett, also known through projects including Lowswimmer and Hailaker.

Their early collaborative single “Faux” was released in 2014. Lacey and Tullett discovered a natural creative connection, with their voices, songwriting approaches, and production styles complementing one another. Their collaborations developed over several years and eventually resulted in a full-length album.

Tullett’s influence also extends beyond their jointly credited music. He has contributed songwriting, additional production, instrumentation, and creative ideas to several Novo Amor releases. Lacey has described Tullett as one of the musicians who has influenced him most.

Bathing Beach EP

Novo Amor released the Bathing Beach EP in May 2016. Written with Ed Tullett, the project expanded the sound established on Woodgate, NY. It featured richer arrangements and a growing sense of confidence in Lacey’s production.

The EP includes songs associated with some of Novo Amor’s most recognizable early work, particularly “Anchor,” which became a fan favorite. Its delicate guitar, rising vocal layers, and emotional imagery helped attract listeners around the world.

Bathing Beach showed that Novo Amor could maintain intimacy while building increasingly detailed arrangements. It also prepared the way for the larger collaborative and solo albums that followed.

Heiress With Ed Tullett

In November 2017, Novo Amor and Ed Tullett released the collaborative album Heiress. Although it is not considered Lacey’s first solo Novo Amor album, it is an essential part of his discography.

The album combines the musicians’ voices, songwriting, and production into a continuous atmospheric experience. Songs such as “Alps,” “Cavalry,” “Silvery,” and “Dancer” feature layered harmonies, abstract lyrics, evolving instrumental passages, and carefully textured soundscapes.

Heiress feels larger and more experimental than Novo Amor’s earlier EPs. The arrangements move between quiet acoustic sections and broad cinematic climaxes. The record established Lacey and Tullett as creative partners capable of building an entire musical world together.

The album also demonstrated Novo Amor’s increasing interest in sound as a physical environment. Instruments, voices, room noise, and processed textures are combined to create a sense of location rather than simply accompany lyrics.

Birthplace — Debut Solo Album

Novo Amor released his debut solo album, Birthplace, on October 19, 2018. Written and recorded by Lacey with additional songwriting from Ed Tullett, the album was produced and mixed by Lacey himself.

The album includes “Emigrate,” “Birthplace,” “Utican,” “Seneca,” “Anniversary,” “Statelines,” “Oh, Round Lake,” and “Sleepless.” These songs revisit memories of upstate New York while exploring distance, identity, departure, and the difficulty of separating a real place from an idealized memory.

Musically, Birthplace combines acoustic guitar, piano, strings, percussion, vocal layers, and subtle electronic production. The songs frequently begin with small, fragile elements before expanding into wide emotional arrangements.

The title track received attention not only for its music but also for its environmental video. The visual addressed plastic pollution and the damage caused to marine ecosystems, connecting the album’s themes of place and memory with broader ecological concerns.

Birthplace established Novo Amor as a major voice in contemporary atmospheric indie folk. It also led to extensive international touring, bringing his carefully constructed studio music into larger live environments.

Cannot Be, Whatsoever

Novo Amor’s second solo album, Cannot Be, Whatsoever, was released on November 6, 2020. Lacey recorded the album in Wales between September 2019 and May 2020. He again handled production, engineering, and mixing, with Ed Tullett providing songwriting, additional sounds, and creative contributions.

Where Birthplace is closely associated with rural landscapes and distant memories, Cannot Be, Whatsoever has a more immediate and restless personality. Songs such as “Opaline,” “Decimal,” “No Plans,” “Birdcage,” “Keep Me,” “Halloween,” and “If We’re Being Honest” introduce louder drums, brighter instrumental colors, and more direct emotional movement.

The record still contains the soft vocals and detailed textures associated with Novo Amor, but it also feels less restrained. Lacey experimented with denser arrangements and allowed moments of energy, uncertainty, frustration, and optimism to exist alongside melancholy.

The album was completed during the early period of the COVID-19 pandemic. Around that time, Lacey decided to leave Cardiff after living there for fourteen years. His former home had also functioned as a crowded recording studio filled with instruments and equipment. Moving away from the city would eventually influence his next major album.

Antarctican Dream Machine

Released in July 2022, Antarctican Dream Machine is an instrumental and atmospheric project within the Novo Amor catalogue. It highlights Lacey’s work as a sound designer and composer rather than focusing on his recognizable falsetto and lyric writing.

The project includes spacious ambient pieces and cinematic soundscapes that demonstrate his ability to communicate without conventional song structures. It connects with the environmental and visual qualities already present throughout his work.

Although it may be less familiar to casual listeners, Antarctican Dream Machine is important for understanding Novo Amor as more than an indie-folk singer. It reveals the production and soundtrack-oriented side of Lacey’s creativity.

Moving to the Welsh Countryside

After completing Cannot Be, Whatsoever, Lacey moved from Cardiff to a converted nineteenth-century barn in the Welsh countryside. He and his father transformed the property’s stables into a new recording studio.

The move reflected his childhood environment. His father had also maintained a studio in a renovated stone barn near the family home. By building a similar creative space, Lacey found himself following part of his parents’ journey from urban life toward the Welsh countryside.

This transition affected both his personal life and creative outlook. The move offered physical space, quieter surroundings, and a different relationship with music. Instead of trying to recreate the past, Lacey began examining what needed to change in his location, relationships, working habits, and attitude toward his career.

Collapse List

Novo Amor released Collapse List on April 5, 2024. It is his third principal solo album following Birthplace and Cannot Be, Whatsoever, and the official Novo Amor Bandcamp describes it as his latest album.

The record was largely created in 2023, although some ideas originated several years earlier. It reflects the changes surrounding Lacey’s departure from Cardiff, his move into the countryside, his relationships, and his evolving feelings about making music.

Songs including “Second Best,” “Same Day, Same Face,” “Years On,” “Me v2,” “Co-Pathetic,” “Hotel/Easy Feeling,” “Land Where I Land,” “Sand and Sky,” and “Ornaments” present a more direct and sometimes rhythmically adventurous version of Novo Amor.

The album retains his intimate vocals and detailed production but introduces sharper contrasts and a greater sense of self-examination. Rather than focusing entirely on romantic memory, Collapse List addresses personal expectations, creative pressure, change, balance, and the unstable relationship between identity and artistic work.

Its visual presentation connects Lacey’s current countryside home with images of the landscape where he grew up. This reinforces one of the central themes of his career: places change, people change, but memory continually reshapes how those places are understood.

Recent Music

Novo Amor continued releasing new material after Collapse List. His official Bandcamp discography lists “monty (＾ᴥ＾)” in October 2025, followed by an acoustic version in February 2026. These releases show that the project remains active beyond the 2024 album and continues to develop through standalone recordings as well as full-length projects.

Novo Amor Discography

Principal Solo Albums

1. Birthplace — 2018
2. Cannot Be, Whatsoever — 2020
3. Collapse List — 2024

Collaborative and Instrumental Albums

• Heiress with Ed Tullett — 2017
• Antarctican Dream Machine — 2022

Major EPs

• Woodgate, NY — 2014
• Bathing Beach — 2016

His wider catalogue also includes early singles, collaborations, covers, alternate versions, acoustic recordings, soundtrack work, and standalone releases.

Musical Style and Production

Novo Amor’s music is often described as indie folk, alternative folk, ambient pop, or atmospheric indie. However, these categories only partially explain his sound.

Lacey’s falsetto is one of his most recognizable features. He frequently records several vocal layers, blending them into a soft harmonic texture. Acoustic guitars are often processed with reverb and delay, while pianos, strings, banjo, bass, drums, and electronic sounds gradually enter the arrangements.

His experience in music technology allows him to treat ordinary noise as part of the composition. Sounds from recording rooms, nearby streets, natural environments, equipment, and everyday activity may become subtle layers within a track.

Lyrically, Novo Amor frequently explores memory, separation, landscape, personal change, emotional uncertainty, and the desire to find a sense of home. His writing is often indirect, allowing listeners to connect their own experiences to the songs.

Environmental Awareness

Environmental responsibility has become an important part of Novo Amor’s work. The “Birthplace” music video highlighted plastic pollution, while physical releases have used environmentally conscious materials, including recycled vinyl, FSC-certified cardboard, and bio-based vinyl options.

This approach aligns naturally with the landscapes present in his music. Nature is not simply used as decoration; it is connected to memory, identity, responsibility, and the emotional atmosphere of the songs.

Legacy and Continued Appeal

Novo Amor has created a musical world defined by intimacy, craftsmanship, and emotional detail. His recordings can feel deeply private, yet their themes are widely relatable. Listeners may recognize their own experiences of distance, change, grief, hope, and belonging within his songs.

From the bedroom-made recordings of Woodgate, NY to the rural studio environment of Collapse List, Lacey’s career reflects continuous artistic growth. He has expanded from a personal songwriting project into an internationally recognized body of work without losing the quiet emotional character that first attracted listeners.

Novo Amor’s music rewards careful listening. Beneath its gentle surface are complex arrangements, experimental production, environmental sounds, layered meanings, and a strong sense of place. His work continues to connect with fans seeking music that feels thoughtful, atmospheric, and emotionally sincere.