Constellation

Description

Constellation features contributions from Halsalls rhythm section, drummer Alan Taylor and bassist Gavin Barras, as well as Jordan Smart from Mammal Hands, whose supple sax exquisitely colours the fringes of most of its songs. Also guesting: John Ellis, former member of The Cinematic Orchestra, beatifically tinkling the ivories at the end of Fall Into Place, and producer Aaron Wood via a raft of ambient samples adding textured loveliness throughout Rainfall. I love being open to collaboration, Rose enthuses, and the records a collage, knitting together all these influences, sounds and players, and just really going for it with the experimentation in the production. Constellation sees her broaden the range of her singing, from the pure natural expression of her earlier records, to using it more as an instrument, sometimes more as abstract sound than as conventional verbal delivery. Its all playful and experimental, she summarizes, seeing what we could come up with thats imaginative. And she has learnt to use her artistic license just to let the words be as they are, to write in a momentary, impressionistic, almost painterly way. One example was how the word constellation just fell into her head like, out of the cosmos while recording that song, so in it went. It also seemed emblematic of many aspects of the album the theme of connectedness, her little cluster of Gondwana family musicians, and a pervasive feel of stargazing awe in the music. It obviously made a fitting album title, too. And so, Caoilfhionn Roses collage of differing influences and inspirations, players and processes, cohered into a miraculous and quietly powerful body of work, which stands as a testament to artistic adventure, to both improvisation and hard work, to trusting our connection to nature, other people and music itself. As such, Constellation surely deserves to put her on a much bigger stage by the years end.