Best of Year 2019 - exclusive limited edition cassette with two brand new tracks for free with every album purchase*
Second album from London-based artist, Rachael Finney, who also splits her time as an academic, something I mention because, as it says in the accompanying press release, the music here is informed by her research into recorded sound and voice. What makes Every and All We Voyage On notable is that very rarely does it sound burdened by theory, or often times, even that it's the result of such a background. Finney has an uncanny knack for making the intellectual emotional. This is in part attributable to the simplicity of the compositions, made with a single Casio keyboard and piano, which provide a fitting platform for robot-like vocal incantations that hint at a profundity that somehow remains out of reach - maybe because I can't quite make out what Finney is singing, maybe because I'm not meant to. The mid-album pairing of the title track and 'Spiritual and Symphony' provides the highpoint, minimal pop expressions possessed of the same utopian futurism of Laurie Anderson or Yoko Ono. Heady associations for an album of such modest means, but it's a contagious, compelling collection deserving of the praise.
*while stocks last
