LUCY RAILTON レコード& CD

Review: 'Does Spring Hide Its Joy' is an immersive audio experience by American composer Kali Malone featuring the likes of Stephen O'Malley and Lucy Railton. Created and recorded in the empty Berlin Funkhaus & Monom during the lockdown of spring 2020, the music is a study in long-form, non-linear durational composition, with dramatic ringing synth patches that reverberate through both the mind and the tower Malone recorded in. With a 10-minute film accompaniment, the iconic nineteenth-century Grade II listed building was the stage for Malone's composition, which breathes and bellows through porous brick walls, reverberating toward the surface.

Review: Ideologic Organ do things their own way here with an uncompromisingly long new album Does Spring Hide Its Joy from Kali Malone. It comes as a triple LP set that cannot fail to immerse you into rich soundscapes that are aided by Stephen O'Malley on electric guitar and Lucy Railton on cello. Composer Malone herself contributes sine wave oscillators as she focuses on harmony, non-linear arrangements and intonation. It is an album of nuanced minimalism that builds on and departs from previous themes in her work to make for a stand-alone and stand-out record.

Review: Sheffield-based experimental label Another Timbre is reissuing some of their most sought-after CDs, starting with this collaboration between Berlin-based Japanese composer and reeds player Michiko Ogawa and cellist, composer and noted classical-electronic fusionist Lucy Railton. Designed as an exercise in creating musical magic using just three musical elements - cello, organ and sho (a Japanese reed instrument) - Fragments of Reincarnation is an evocative, atmospheric and at times hypnotic piece that sits somewhere between cutting-edge modern classical, ambient and immersive sound design. The interplay between the cello and sho, gently dancing atop a bed of sustained organ chords, is particularly impressive.

Review: Recorded at the legendary Eglise du Saint-Esprit in Paris, Blue Veil is the very first time we've been given a record fully dedicated to the incredible solo cello work of Lucy Railton. A spectacularly talented composer who is a master of the world's most mournful-yet-beautiful instrument, this is as much of a heart-stopping performance as it is a concept work of art. In many ways, Blue Veil is an experiment in resonance. If it were synthesised, we might refer to it as drone, although by nature the label infers a level of dullness. Here, we're talking about the natural refrains of an orchestral sunrise, the ebb and flow of contemporary classical tides. We're invited in, hypnotised, lulled and then let go. Free to wander back into the world after a brief respite from its relentless pace.