Claire M Singer: Gleann Ciùin (digital, Touch, November 2025)

There are a handful records where the sound of the first few notes is enough to tell me that it’s going to take me to my happy place. Radiohead’s Kid A, which starts with the gorgeous synth swell of Everything In Its Right Place, is one that springs to mind. This is another. The layers of sound that emerge from the quiet in the opening track are just so perfect. The pipe organ drone, combining a bassy thrum and an aetherial treble, just a touch of vibrato, and then a rich midtone comes in, and then further harmonics: bliss. As this 19 minute track builds, there are some lovely buzzy sounds, and then there is a soaring cello line, and the joy is quite transporting. The title, Turadh, is Scottish gaelic for a break in the clouds between showers, which is very apt.

The five tracks here have a pleasing symmetry. The second and fourth are short interludes of mostly abstract electronics whose titles are the latitude and longitude of places in the Cairngorms (this is the second album in a trilogy dedicated to that landscape) and serve as nice palate cleansers. The middle one, Rionnag a Tuath, is a shorter organ drone and cello piece, more simply melodic. It closes with the title track, another 19-minute number that develops and unfurls and grows and then reveals an evocative cello piece which is a thing of utter rapture.

It’s no surprise that I love this, as Singer is a solid favourite around these parts. But that way she is delivers time and again without it ever growing even the teensiest bit old is amazing.

I bought this from the artist’s bandcamp page.