Adrian Corker – Raise

Flecked with crackles, creaks, taps and clicks, Raise is an evocative listen filled with enriching experimental asides – from the analogue tape manipulations of Unfold to the miasmic strings of Shifting Grains. With a background in soundtracks (including scores for most of director Antonia Bird’s features) Adrian Corker has past form crafting absorbing atmospherics, though without some kind of visual or narrative accompaniment, some of these compositions arguably want for a focal point; while every track contributes to the album’s meditative tone, some offer only minimal pleasures in and of themselves.

Amongst its languorous drift are enough moments of glittering, enigmatic brilliance to win considerable favour, including Circle Song – in which Corker is joined by members of Portico Quartet for a mournful, jazzy shuffle across a sparse percussive backdrop – and closing piano piece Interdependence, which ends things on just the right note of ambient beauty. [Chris Buckle]