Kali Malone
Kali Malone | |
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Also known as | Medicine Bow |
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Years active | 2014–present |
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Website | kalimalone |
Kali Malone is an American composer and organist based in Stockholm. Her works implement unique tuning systems in minimalist form for analog and digital synthesis often combined with acoustic instrumentation.[4][5][6]
Early life
Malone was raised in Denver, Colorado. She moved to Western Massachusetts to study music, but relocated to Stockholm in 2012 after befriending the Swedish avant-garde composer Ellen Arkbro. She studied electroacoustic composition at the Royal College of Music, Stockholm.[4][2]
Career
In 2016 she co-founded the record label and concert series XKatedral, together with Maria W Horn, in Stockholm.
In 2019, she released The Sacrificial Code, featuring nearly two hours of pipe organ compositions, through iDEAL Recordings. The album made the year-end lists of Pitchfork,[7] The Wire,[8] and 2019 Album of the Year from Boomkat.[9]
In 2022, she released Living Torch, a 33-minute piece presented in two movements. It was commissioned by the French electroacoustic music studio Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) for its loudspeaker orchestra, the Acousmonium.[10] The album features a departure of the pipe organ that typified Malone's music. It features a mélange of acoustic and electronic instruments including the trombone and bass clarinet to the more experimental boîte à bourdon.[11] It was composed by Malone in 11-odd limit just intonation. The trombone and bass clarinet were recorded in meticulous individual parts to match each computer-generated sound wave. It was stitched together by Malone with heavily textured drones as well as the boîte à bourdon and sounds generated from the ARP 2500 modular synthesizer unit owned by Éliane Radigue.[10] Malone composed and produced the album at the GRM in Paris between 2020 and 2021.[12] It is the first collaboration between the GRM and its new label-partner Shelter Press, continuing the Portraits GRM record series which Peter Rehberg of Editions MEGO set the foundation for in 2012.[13] The album was premiered at the GRM in October 2021, three months after Rehberg's death.[10] The album was released by Portraits GRM on July 7, 2022.
In 2023, she released Does Spring Hide Its Joy, a collaboration with Sunn O))) member Stephen O'Malley and British cellist Lucy Railton. It was composed and recorded between March and May 2020 in the empty concert halls of Berlin Funkhaus and MONOM during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Malone plays tuned sine wave oscillators on the album while O'Malley appears on electric guitar and Lucy Railton on cello.[14] The album consists of an hour-long composition presented in three versions—each a minor variation on the titular piece.[1][15][16] It was released through O'Malley's Ideologic Organ label on January 20, 2023.[14] On May 14, 2023, activists from the French far-right and Traditionalist Catholic movement Civitas obtained the cancellation of one of her concerts in the Saint-Cornély church, in Carnac (Brittany) by the mayor of the town, after the activists blocked the entrance of the church from the spectators, deeming Malone's work "profanatory".[17]
Discography
Studio albums
Title | Details |
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Velocity of Sleep |
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Cast of Mind |
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The Sacrificial Code |
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Living Torch |
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Does Spring Hide Its Joy (featuring Stephen O'Malley & Lucy Railton) |
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Compilation albums
Title | Details |
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XKatedral Volume III (with Caterina Barbieri & Ellen Arkbro) |
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Studies for Organ (Rehearsal Demo Tape) |
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EPs
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Tragic Chorus |
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Black Gate |
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Organ Dirges 2016–2017 |
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The Torrid Eye (with Acronym) |
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Other
With Morbida
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Morbida / Medicine Bow |
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With Taxi Taxi
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Floating Forever |
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With Hästköttskandalen
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Spacegirls |
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With Swap Babies
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Bloody from Digging |
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With Sorrowing Christ
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Sorrowing Christ |
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With Golden Offence Orchestra
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Ode to Pauline Oliveros |
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References
- ^ a b McTernan, Conor (January 27, 2023). "Kali Malone - Does Spring Hide Its Joy feat. Stephen O'Malley & Lucy Railton". Resident Advisor. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ a b Allan, Jennifer Lucy (January 18, 2023). "'I want an indescribable feeling': composer Kali Malone on her search for the sublime". The Guardian. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ Williger, Jonathan (January 25, 2023). "Kali Malone: Does Spring Hide Its Joy Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ a b Cookcook (October 4, 2018). "Kali Malone". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ "Kali Malone crafts two hours of minimalist drone on The Sacrificial Code". June 28, 2019.
- ^ D'Amico, Anthony (August 18, 2019). "Brainwashed - Kali Malone, "The Sacrificial Code"". Brainwashed. Archived from the original on September 23, 2019.
- ^ "The Best Experimental Albums of 2019". Pitchfork. 16 December 2019.
- ^ "Releases of the Year". The Wire. No. 431. January 2020.
- ^ "Kali Malone - The Sacrificial Code". Boomkat.
- ^ a b c Currin, Grayson Haver (July 12, 2022). "Kali Malone: Living Torch Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ Gotrich, Lars (July 8, 2022). "Kali Malone, 'Living Torch II'". NPR. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ Rugoff, Lazlo (July 8, 2022). "Kali Malone explores electroacoustics on new LP, Living Torch". The Vinyl Factory. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ "Kali Malone : Living Torch (CD)". Les presses du réel. July 7, 2022. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ a b Eede, Christian (November 16, 2022). "Kali Malone Details New Album, 'Does Spring Hide Its Joy'". The Quietus. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ Poscic, Antonio (January 17, 2023). "Kali Malone – Does Spring Hide Its Joy". The Quietus. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ Creely, Joe (January 17, 2023). "Kali Malone – Does Spring Hide Its Joy". The Skinny. Retrieved February 10, 2023.
- ^ "Des catholiques traditionalistes empêchent un concert dans une église bretonne". Le HuffPost (in French). 2023-05-14. Retrieved 2023-05-14.
External links
- Official website
- Allan, Jennifer Lucy (January 18, 2023). "'I want an indescribable feeling': composer Kali Malone on her search for the sublime". The Guardian.
- Living people
- 21st-century American composers
- 21st-century classical composers
- American classical composers
- American composers
- American expatriates in Sweden
- American organists
- American women classical composers
- American women in electronic music
- Composers for pipe organ
- Electroacoustic music composers
- Minimalist composers
- Musicians from Denver
- Musicians from Stockholm
- Royal College of Music, Stockholm alumni
- Women organists