Winter is coming, and like a perfectly timed angel of the underworld, Gemma Ray returns to the musical spotlight sublime as ever.
The accomplished UK artist, based in Berlin, is about to release her seventh studio album The Exodus Suite. A dark exploration of raw humanity, Ray chose to record somewhere that would have taken some extraordinary courage; it was done in a week at an airport where 8,000 Syrian refugees were housed. At the time of writing they are still there, making the listening experinece of this record inescapeably poignant and political.
With tracks explicity named such as ‘We Do War’, ‘We Are All Wandering’ and ‘Hail Animal’, you might not expect such polished, beautiful sounds. But while her lyrics may be unforgivingly visceral, Ray composes music with the most graceful restraint. Utter transcendence is the result.
Ray’s style is difficult to define; throughout the album there are flourishes of everything from gothic choir, orchestral melodies, psychadelia and spiritual prog rock. Beautiful, dark, and darker still captures something of the mood on The Exodus Suite.
The album will be released in Australia on July 1.
