The first album for six years by the British singer-songwriter brings an exquisite fragility and mature beauty, suffused with her delicate, sometimes ghostly vocals and sparse but perfectly weighted instrumentation. The raw material was written during lockdown on a beaten-up old piano bought in Camden Market, and these musical sketches began with no particular direction, but gradually evolved into one of her very finest of the eight since her debut in 1993, including Trailer Park and Central Reservation. The title and opening track is one of the highlights, Orton’s voice and instruments delicately interweaving, and is given a wonderfully light percussive touch by Sons of Kemet drummer Tom Skinner who features across the album. Fractals is another, focusing on the connectedness of patterns across people, time and nature and features the jittery saxophone of Alabaster DePlume. Others of the eight include Forever Young, and Friday night has a more conventional, dusky beauty. But the entire album is sensual listening experience an “exploration that allowed for a connection to a consciousness” and at times is reminiscent of the later work of Mark Hollis of Talk Talk. Rewarding on every listen. Out on Partisan Records
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