Kali Malone
Today we’re listening to Kali Malone, an American multi-instrumentalist and composer from Colorado. We’ve recommended her music twice before. The occasion for today’s rec is the new reissue of her 2019 LP, The Sacrificial Code, which we were alerted to by ’s writeup in Pitchfork. Malone originally recorded The Sacrificial Code as she was finishing her master’s in electroacoustic composition at The Royal College of Music in Stockholm.1 She miked old church organs extremely close, removing the reverberation of the notes throughout the hall, and then further removed sonic artifacts from the performance in post. The result is a pure distillation of the historic organs’ richly textured tones. The reissue includes a new performance of the titular track on a 16th-century meantone organ at Malmö Konstmuseum.2 We’re also playing her 2024 record, All Life Long, which has compositions for pipe organ, chamber choir, and brass ensemble.
The Sacrificial Code - Kali Malone (75m, no vocals)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
All Life Long - Kali Malone (78m, choral vocals on tracks 1, 6, and 9)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Amazon Music / Bandcamp / Tidal
We wish you a great start to your week.
To be honest, I was a bit cautious about taking this up from memory of previous work, but 'Sacrificial Code' is so much warmer, golden drone - odd to think of the difference that removing the reverberations makes. There are textures and shifts. And it somehow makes my desk vibrate even through the not-very-powerful speakers I have.
Wow. Sacrificial Code is amazing and lovely 🥰