After 15 Years The Durutti Column Rise Again
New Durutti Album Out 31st July 2026
Album Review
The brief introductory track has a deceptive beginning. It is slow to build and slightly threatening in tone. It develops, with a change of tempo, into what might be a musical synopsis of the complete album. The brevity of the first track and its broken rhythm leads beautifully into the cool of Your Shadow at Morning, where use of steady piano chords working through a series of cycles, provides the background to some finely-etched guitar details, before the piano eases its way into the foreground, completing a wholly satisfying piece. Harold Budd would have been proud to issue this in his creative prime.
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| Vini Reilly (Photo: Christopher Thomond / The Guardian / eyevine) |
As you listen to the unrolling of Your Shadow at Morning, you would be forgiven for thinking that you were falling sweetly into an exquisite album of ambient music. Were this wintertime, I might be happily imagining the downward spiralling of snowflakes.
Time Present and Past embroiders the sense of chilling, which given the current weather is wonderfully welcome. This track changes from first into second gear and a sense of movement accompanies the circular phrases, that are like rain falling into a smooth lake, as a shower passes down a valley. Make what you like of the initial trio of track titles, although they must mean something to The Durrutti Column, without accompanying lyrics, you may well find yourself considering alternatives, from the images that well up in your mind’s eye as you listen. These first three compositions might also be viewed as the opening movement of a symphony.
Agonistes introduces the second movement, if I am to continue with the analogy. Here are the first vocals, as a woman’s voice gradually evolves into a lyrical part. Poetic in form, the gradual revealing of Caoilfhionn Rose's voice is a complement to the now signature use of the guitar’s finely worked samples. The emergence of lyrics I can finally see the night and Emphasise the ending float into one’s consciousness, from the ethereal blend of tones.
Liars follows. Here, we first hear the quiet voice of Vini Reilly surfacing. The concluding line, I love you, I’m sorry is striking a striking in its contrast with the song title. How often is the phrase “I love you” weaponised, like this? Throughout Liars I am reminded of King Creosote’s recent KY-10, an album lamenting the sinister loss of a trawler with all hands, which uses a similar partially submerged spoken word element. The drums of Bruce Mitchell make their first noticeable contribution at this point too. Throughout, Keir Stewart’s studio treatments are applied sensitivly to a catalogue of retrieved experimental recordings by Reilly and recently improvised sessions recorded as they emerged.
You can listen to Liars here from the official Durretti Column website.
Your Shadow at Evening is the first upbeat thumping track. We have returned to the purely instrumental and the range of instrumentation takes us into a dance, which I sense might be developed further into an outstanding, ecstatic trance track. With this the second movement ends and we are found back in the calm of the opening mood of the album, which begins with the voice and piano of Caoilfhionn Rose performing the dreamy Sargasso Sea.
Scammer follows with Vini laying a quietly spoken monologue over a skein of gentle, rhythmic pulsing. As with all the album's tracks, the piece is circular. If want an image, think of floating out from a quayside beyond the seawall, before an equally gentle return and disembarkation.
For Friends Everywhere closes the work and it is a surprising piece, played with an eight part orchestra. The richness of this final track, with brass, woodwind, strings, piano and more understated percussion stands out for its lack of obvious synthetic treatment. My surprise at the appearance of this vibrant acoustic track at the conclusion of the album was not entirely positive, but with replaying it has a fierce brightness that puts a tidy bow on the whole album.
Renascent is released at the end of this month. You can read full details from The Durutti Column press release, sent out by Sonic PR, below. The CD and streamed versions will include a bonus track, All They See is Fire which sounds like it is a composite piece, with elements from each of the tracks dressed again by the ethereal singing of Caoilfhionn Rose.
This is an album worth getting your ears around. in a summer during which the heat is turning to fire on the Lancashire hills and smoke fills the streets of Manchester, Renascent is a wonderful, refreshing escape from all that heat.
- Echoes In The Memory
- Your Shadow At Morning
- Time Present And Time Past
- Agonistes
- Liars
- Vapour In A Matchbox
- Your Shadow At Evening
- Sargasso Sea
- Scammer
- For Friends Everywhere
- All They See Is Fire (CD / digital bonus track)
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