Kali Malone – Does Spring Hide Its Joy

Following 2022’s sublime Living Torch, Kali Malone quickly follows up with another LP, this time a set of recordings of the titular piece, written during lockdown in a series of temporarily abandoned concert halls as an exploration of space and time. Enlisting Stephen O’Malley of drone metal icons Sunn O))) and the always fantastic cellist Lucy Railton into a group to interpret her compositions, the trio bring new textures to Malone’s harmonic brilliance. 

It’s not one that’ll win over any fence sitters. The album consists of three versions of the same piece and three hours of Malone’s composition at its most oblique and minimal, the piece in a state of constant but glacial shift. It’s often beautifully done, particularly the foregrounding of Railton’s cello towards the end of V3 that has a real growling beauty, as well as the moment two-thirds of the way through V2 in which O’Malley’s trademark waves of distortion pierce through the mix.

However there are long stretches, particularly during the muted take on V1 in which the pieces are impressive rather than affecting, where you can marvel at Malone’s skill with timbre without being moved in any way. It leaves a sense that the album feels more like one for the most committed fans of all three artists, but one that, given the chance, has some astonishing moments.

Listen to: V2, V3