Alison Cotton ‘s new album The Gods Laugh joins a long line of her albums that inhabit dark and ancient parts of our collective past, drawing from folklore and collaging myriad sounds into layered and captivating sonic arrangements that often centre around drones, strings and her divine voice. Cotton has a particular methodology for writing and recording which is, “to work predominantly with the instruments I play and own… these parameters have grown as my music has evolved but mainly because I’ve bought new instruments. As for the sound, I really just play what comes naturally to me and it comes out in a folky way. The drone element started almost as a necessity, as I often use it as a base to play other parts over when I’m improvising. My first album was mainly just viola and vocals and, it worked well playing and singing over a viola or Omnichord drone.”
The album evokes the feelings we get if we go to the deep forest or chance upon ruined buildings or standing stones, that sense we are not alone and the ghosts of the past are trying to reach across the years. Memory inherent in such places is often called stone tape theory (something I have previously referenced in relation to the exceptional work of Llyn Y Cwn who draws inspiration from the Welsh countryside and its standing stones). Many of the tracks lay down a drone that lets Alison Cotton’s voice roll like mist across the top and on ‘The Night it Darkens all Around Me’ she captures that glorious anxiety you get when the light starts to go, and night draws its dark cloak across the world.
Alison Cotton uses her instrumental arrangements to provide a narrative as much as the tracks featuring lyrics do, such as the waltz-time ‘Sprigs of Heather’ with a processional feel that draws you in and urges you to follow. This is echoed in the use of military snare on ‘The Final Harvest’ and the enticing pull of ‘Round of the Red Cape’ with its bass drum pulse.
I always appreciate a healthy peppering of dissonance in my music as too much sweetness can lead to a trip to the dentist, and Cotton uses tension to great effect, such as at the end of ‘I Am!’, John Clare’s 1865 poem set to music (live video below), ‘What Were Those Words You Spoke to Me ‘, where the multiple voices smear into one another and swell alongside gongs and drones, and ‘A Storm in Morwenstow’ (on the coast of north Cornwall) which encapsulates the unsettling moods of the sea.
As an antonym to the queasy joy of ‘The Night it Darkens all Around Me’ the album ends on ‘The Gods Laugh at Those Who Make Plans’ which has a sense of optimism in the major drone, expectant vocals, bursts of drums, and the strings which crave resolution. But when the piano appears towards the end of the track it evokes the beauty of sunlight on water.
The Gods Laugh is a swirling galaxy of elongated sounds that stretch perception and time. With the mixture of purity from strings and voice, and the unsteadying effect of drones, it becomes part Zen garden and part mental decongestant. Your mind is freed to roam through the dark forest and the rugged coastline, to remember childhood fairy tales, evoke storms and mourn lost loves. All of this beautifully summed up in lines of John Clare’s Poem ‘I Am!’
Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,
Into the living sea of waking dream,
Where there is neither sense of life, nor joys,
But the huge shipwreck of my own esteem
And all that’s dear. Even those I loved the best
Are strange—nay, they are stranger than the rest.
The Gods Laugh is released on the Glitterbeat tak:til imprint and Alison Cotton is on tour in June and July, dates below the video.
Alison Cotton: Website | Bandcamp | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube
Glitterbeat Records: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube
Alison Cotton live:
Fri 19 June – The Lubber Fiend, Newcastle
Thu 25 June – Haarlem Artspace, Wirksworth
Fri 26 June – Hyper Inverter Festival, Cumbria
Sat 27 June – Full Of Noises, Barrow In Furness
Sun 28 June – The Tin, Coventry
Wed 1 July – Stoke Newington Church, London
Thu 2 July – The Rose Hill, Brighton
Fri 3 July – The Holloway, Norwich
The Gods Laugh gave me a wonderful flashback to Sheila Chandra’s 1994 album Zen Kiss released on Real World, especially the transportive track ‘Abbess Hildegard’ that is simply voice and drone.
Review by Paul F Cook
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