Raw Silk Uncut Wood

"What works reliably is to know the raw silk, hold the uncut wood. Need little. Want less. Forget the rules. Be untroubled." Laurel Halo presents six instrumental pieces that form a meditative, cinematic listening experience. Inspired by recent film score work for Metahaven and Ursula Le Guin's translation of the 'Tao Te Ching'. Featuring cello work by Oliver Coates and percussion by Eli Keszler. Working in abstraction leads to a deeper longing for touch and closeness. The tactile sensation of struck organ keys and bowed strings, wood and felt on drum heads. Smoke and dirt and stone. Febrile and tactile, hairy and hissy. A clover of highway onramps, a continuous flow, like old leaves melting on their way down a stream at the back of a house. Constant contradiction, the truth's nowhere. —

Laurel Halo’s most ambient—and most linear—record to date swims in mysterious electro-acoustic textures; it marks a departure from her usual mode of thorny, cerebral electronic composition.

The sonic adventurer returns to confound once more with this sparse, meditative instrumental experiment

While Laurel Halo's debut album Quarantine received much critical acclaim in 2012, she has done little to feed off the hype and everything to subvert...

A small but perfectly formed example of the state of the ambient art. CD New Music review by Joe Muggs