sophie hutchings: night sky

The Preservation label presents Night Sky, the second album from Sydney's Sophie Hutchings. Pianist Hutchings found herself quickly aligned along a new pantheon of neo-classical composers such as Peter Broderick, Dustin O' Halloran and Nils Frahm when her debut album Becalmed (PRE 030CD) was released in 2010, prompting much critical praise worldwide. MOJO declared it a work that was "stirring, vigorous,[and] grandly melodic." The album was listed in that magazine's "Top 5 Independent Releases" for that year and has continued to endure and impress since. Working yet again with The Necks' long-time engineer Tim Whitten, on Night Sky Hutchings is subtly playful within the direct and emotive candor of her style, making for an open and surprising journey throughout. More lush in scope than Becalmed and augmented with harmonium, strings, percussion, woodwind and vocal ambience, Night Sky reveals Hutchings' compositional style, flowering with more instrumentation and bolder intent. Balancing the beautiful fragility in her work with a deeper sense of urgency creates a striking charge to Night Sky -- a compelling pulse that also encompasses a lightness of touch in parts, making for an album of many shades set within Hutchings' beguiling vision. The rarefied atmosphere of Night Sky confirms Hutchings' standalone presence in the realm of modern composition.