The Bath cover

The Bath

Released

The tranquil beauty of Emma Houton’s vocal harmonies, self-recorded here in eight parts a cappella, would be enough to make her work worth attention. But this debut release does not settle for ambient sameness; instead, she shapes her singing into a varied and rewarding landscape. “Bow and Balance” is the center of gravity, where an Irish murder ballad holds the foreground while the background vocals develop from a simple repeating pattern into a panorama of luminous sound.

Sean Wood

Recommended by

Suggestions
M'berra cover

M'berra

Khalab & M’berra Ensemble
To You Through cover

To You Through

India Gailey
Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms cover

Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms

Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Pierre Boulez
Emanon cover

Emanon

Wayne Shorter
Mutations cover

Mutations

Vijay Iyer
Magico: Carta de Amor cover

Magico: Carta de Amor

Jan Garbarek, Egberto Gismonti, Charlie Haden
Julia Wolfe: Fire in My Mouth cover

Julia Wolfe: Fire in My Mouth

Jaap van Zweden, New York Philharmonic
Manhattan Special cover

Manhattan Special

Onyx Collective
Sleeper: Tokyo, April 16th, 1979 cover

Sleeper: Tokyo, April 16th, 1979

Jan Garbarek, Palle Danielsson, Jon Christensen, Keith Jarrett
The Mothers 1970 cover

The Mothers 1970

The Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa