The world before we knew it. For the Scottish artist, the immense pre-historical era is a deep sea of curiosities whose trail she has been analysing and filtering as an artist. A task still and always in progress of searching for and reconciling those forgotten times – and these urgent times. Based in Denmark since childhood, she remembers Celtic folklore, intertwining it with the whole Nordic ancestral universe. In form, she weaves timeless songs, with a quality akin to Kate Bush or Jenny Hval. Having studied with Meredith Monk, it’s not surprising the hypnotism she creates – levitating dust on a full moon night. The complex vocal subtlety evokes myths and projects visions. He draws the moss of his music from instrumental acoustics while using electronic expression to emphasise the textural signs he explores in a work in movement.

The Voyager emerged in the midst of pandemic surrealism, in a vital and telluric burst for those who came across it. A celebrated record, endowed with a notion of pop composition that was somewhat insular in its time. Exploring harmonic tensions, with intense imagery, he seems to invariably rescue an infinite beauty in the details; the kind of sensitivity capable of transforming a simple particle of an idea into a vast fountain of transformations. This boldness and charm was recognised by the Nordic Prize Music when Connelly developed an app called Vandrigen. Allowing remote ancestral locations to be mapped, well beyond the massive information of the GPS system, each of these places was visited by Connelly herself, in an exercise of sonic portraiture of these landscapes. Having recently joined the Warp label, World of Work takes inspiration from the spheres of progressive rock and minimalism, as well as more esoteric folk. Throughout the twelve pieces there are bells, melodies in half-light and the sensation of a sea breeze that soothes the emotional storm and existentialist questioning of the lyrics. An unusual songbook, attracted by the path towards the unknown – and with a soul open to revelatory matter.

Connecting similar dots to other fabulous musicians such as Astrid Sonne, ML Buch or Julia Holter, it’s time for World of Work to leap from the limits of listening to a sensory experience only possible in this live format. Without futurism or other isms, we can intuitively realise that we are following a talent that will continue to fascinate us exponentially. NA