Hilary Woods Night Criu (Pink)

Following two acclaimed experimental instrumental records in Feral Hymns(2021) and Acts of Light (2023), Hilary Woods returns on her new LP NightCRIÚ, to song form and most notably, to her voice. Relearning how to useit, and crafting songs centred around it, Night CRIÚ's intimate ecosystem ofseven songs uses vocal harmony and the annunciation of lyrics as ways tore-enter the body, to speak to and make the unconscious conscious.A ceremony of light and shade, Night CRIÚ is a record that riles against blud-geoning monoculture in it's reclaiming and mourning a lost innocence all atonce. Woods' sonic palette is both dynamic and vulnerable, in it's reachingto integrate lost and splintered parts of the whole. Unmoored sonic threadsrecall the cracks, fringes, forgotten agency and layered dormant personas thatsurface at night, waiting to be retrieved and integrated come daylight.Inspired and energised by many things including the revival of indigenouslanguage, a personal history of attending parades and processions, early Irishmusic, the joy in Northern Soul dancing, aspects of Czech and early Italiancinema, the immediacy of sound, and the rising up of a present momentcollective in their vocalising and standing up for what it means to be humanin the face of tyranny and oppression, Night CRIÚ was recorded between thewest coast of Ireland, Dublin, London and in part Latvia between 2023 andJanuary 2025. Canticles for voice, brass, strings, electronics, field recordings,texture, synths and piano, these songs were chosen from many early home re-cordings that Woods held up as mirrors of juxtaposition to each other. Writ-ten and produced by Hilary Woods, Night CRIÚ is mixed by Dean Hurleywith additional production by Dean Hurley and Oliver Turvey, masteredby Brian Lucey, and featuring work by Hannah Fallon, Hangleton BrassBand, Gabriel Ferrandini and Ajo Gonsenica."Each record is a life buoy, a snapshot, a marker in the sand, a date that re-quires me to meet it" according to Woods, "A raft, at once cathartic, buoyantand playful, making records is a way of being".