The Exodus Suite [CD]

Gemma Ray's latest opus The Exodus Suite is a dramatic 52-minute odyssey through her unique style of epic torch song psychedelia. Recorded live in seven days at Berlin's infamous Candy Bomber Studios (situated in the former Tempelhof Airport) by Ingo Drauss, the album's title reflects the personal-political themes of the songs within, and the inescapable fact that during recording the hangar beneath the studio was home to 8000 Syrian refugees. The experience of these sights, sounds, and smells right within spitting distance, lent a profoundly immediate dimension to Ray's lyrical explorations of love for all life, exile and relocation, nature's sovereignty, technology, class, and most of all the need for human empathy. The Exodus Suite is set in two parts, starting with a hymn-like paean to nature's forces, "Come Caldera" that kicks off a monumental 11-song journey through to the skulking and esoteric album closer "Shimmering."

• Format Detail: CD
• Format: CD
• Genre: Rock