Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia

**** MOJO **** The Arts Desk **** Evening Standard **** Record Collector **** Loud and Quiet A 7-movement odyssey composed for analogue synths and a full 29-piece colliery brass band Recorded live in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, UK, with Tubular Brass by the Real World Studios team Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia’, explores one person's journey to outer space, by recounting the story of an unknown, elderly, pioneering, electronic musical stargazer and her lifelong dream to leave her terraced home in the mining town of Barnsley, South Yorkshire, to see Cassiopeia for herself With artwork by Grammy award winning designer Jonathan Barnbrook (David Bowie collaborator on albums ‘Blackstar’ and ‘The Next Day’ ) and the complete brass band and rhythm section recorded live on location in The Barnsley Civic Theatre with Peter Gabriel’s Real World studio team, this exclusive album combines Peel’s detailed, analogue synth layered production and her expressive flair for performance with ‘Tubular Brass’, featuring the top UK championship brass band players. It’s a wholly unique, collaborative sound and seemingly, a first of it’s kind both live and on record. At the close of the album’s final song ‘The Planet of Passed Souls’, tutti brass jostle with the hiss and crackle of a 78rpm record. An emotionally charged, scratchy sample taken from a 1928 recording of Peel’s own choirboy grandfather in Manchester Cathedral leaves the listener questioning the reality of Mary’s connection with the stars… Did she ever make it to Cassiopeia? Is this all a daydream as she sits in a back garden shed tinkering with electronics and her telescope? Or maybe this is her final breath as her mind and body pass into another realm of life? Is this science or fantasy? And how much is there really a division between the two?

Mary Casio: Journey to Cassiopeia is the eccentric, intergalactic concept album that you didn’t know you needed

Inspired by the fact there are as many neurons in our brains as there are stars in the galaxy, electronic composer Hannah Peel gifts us a concept album of vast scope and vaulting ambition, a symphonic take on an imagined odyssey from a mining town in Yorkshire to, well, infinity and beyond.

With the blend of analogue synthesizers and full, traditional 29-piece colliery band, Peel has created a unique and truly extraordinary record.

Yorkshire musician Hannah Peel's ambitious third album is a seven movement odyssey that takes the listener on a journey to outer space.

An electronica-infused trip through outer space on the wings of a brass band. Review by Kieron Tyler