- The celebrated composer forms a power trio—and moves from the organ to a synthesizer—for her grandest work yet.
- A musician whose work usually consists of extended organ-focused drone works, Stockholm artist Kali Malone might carry remarkable regard in experimental music circles and beyond, but her talent as a composer and an arranger should be obvious to anyone. Her latest work, Does Spring Hide Its Joy is an odyssey even for someone whose breakthrough project was a nearly two-hour drone double album. Featuring Sunn O)))'s Stephen O'Malley on guitar and Lucy Railton on cello, the three versions of this piece were recorded during an extended jam at Berlin's iconic Funkhaus venue. And instead of her usual organ, here Malone sits down with tuned sine-wave oscillators to spine-tingling effect. As spring winks from around the corner, Malone beckons the adventurous with a white-knuckle ride of operatic proportions.
Does Spring Hide Its Joy was borne from a long, brutal period of uncertainty (AKA the year 2020), and it stretches out like the bleakest patches of winter before blossoming into light airy spring. Split across three hour-long versions—each a minor variation on the titular piece—Malone recycles motifs with a range of raw and compelling tones. The full listen is a cathartic experience, as suitable for playing loudly on a good system as for listening in a warm bath, illuminated by candlelight.
Malone's high-pitched frequencies tremble with impressive texture and dynamism, colliding with Railton's impossibly long pulls of the bow, forming a remarkable cacophony. Across these hours both musicians' sounds are front-and-centre, moving through myriad sounds and moods from soft pianissimo to razor-sharp bellowing, like a hammer shattering a block of ice. O'Malley is responsible for some of these moments. While his name carries serious weight in doom and experimental music circles, and his work is associated with crushing heaviness, here, his fingerprints are faint and understated—until his high frequency guitar suddenly pierces right through it all. His presence first makes itself known about 17 minutes into "V1," cutting through a rolling wave of sound that Malone has been building up layer by layer. Moments like these create giddy ecstasy, surprise, fright, maybe all three at once.
While all three versions share similarities, there are striking differences that set them apart. "V2" is like "V1" with the pace increased to a canter—Railton is a little faster, O'Malley plays a notch harder and everything oscillates a little more wildly. The midsection of "V2," in particular, is gargantuan, while "V3" cycles through what sounds like a thunderstorm before things settle and reset to a peaceful close of near-silence.
Does Spring Hide Its Joy meanders like a mesmerizing but rugged river, ebbing and flowing down a tall mountain. Its waters run colder as the terrain shifts, as sounds vanish then resurface like old friends farther down the line. Sweeps of cello curve and linger like oxbow lakes in the mind, before fading into a deep blue oceanic abyss. Though Malone's music can often feel still, one thing's for certain about Does Spring Hide Its Joy: it'll move you.
Tracklist01. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v1.1
02. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v1.2
03. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v1.3
04. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v2.1
05. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v2.2
06. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v2.3
07. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v1
08. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v2
09. Does Spring Hide Its Joy v3