Name: Constellation
Brand: Caoilfhionn Rose

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

GONDLP69

Colour

Black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Housed in  printed coated-side board sleeve with printed insert, finished in a matte varnish and packed in resealable protective sleeve.

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2024-05-24

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

4062548080025

Total Cap

Black LP

GONDLP69TCL

Clear

Transparent Clear

Extended format: Yes

Housed in printed coated-side board sleeve with printed insert, finished in a matte varnish and packed in resealable protective sleeve.

4062548080032

Clear LP

GONDCD69

Housed in printed gatefold style sleeve and packed in resealable protective sleeve

4062548080049

Artist

Caoilfhionn Rose

Genre GB

Singer Songwriter

Label GB

Gondwana Records

Caoilfhionn Rose is a talented singer-songwriter from Manchester, UK. Her ethereal and enchanting music blends elements of folk, dream pop, and electronica to create a unique and captivating sound. With her mesmerizing vocals and introspective lyrics, Caoilfhionn has gained recognition for her emotive storytelling and ability to transport listeners to another world.

Having released her debut album "Awaken" in 2018, Caoilfhionn has been praised by critics for her haunting melodies and atmospheric production. Drawing inspiration from nature, dreams, and personal experiences, she crafts songs that are both intimate and universal in their themes.

With a growing fanbase around the globe, Caoilfhionn continues to captivate audiences with her live performances. Whether performing solo or with a full band, she creates an immersive experience that leaves listeners spellbound. If you're looking for music that will transport you to another realm, look no further than Caoilfhionn Rose.

Gondwana Records is an independent record label based in Manchester, UK. Founded by Matthew Halsall in 2008, the label has gained recognition for its diverse roster of talented artists and exceptional music releases.

Over the years, Gondwana Records has been a platform for renowned musicians such as Dwight Trible, GoGo Penguin, John Ellis, Mammal Hands, Nat Birchall, Noya Rao, Phil France and Portico Quartet. Each artist brings their unique style and musical expertise to the label's catalogue.

With a commitment to showcasing innovative and boundary-pushing music, Gondwana Records continues to be at the forefront of the independent music scene. Whether you're a jazz enthusiast or simply appreciate good music across genres, Gondwana Records offers a captivating selection that will leave you wanting more.

With her third Gondwana album, Constellation, Manchester’s Caoilfhionn Rose has come of age as an artist, digging deep to find experimental new ways of expressing her wonder at nature’s beauty, her love of music in all its diversity, and her belief in the restorative powers that both afford in the troubled post-COVID world. Vigorous, searching and ever-curious, Caoilfhionn (say ‘Keelin’) has found a voice at once ancient and modern, intrepidly exploring contemporary technology to transform traditional songcraft for the mid 2020’s.

The ten tracks on Constellation feel rooted in a knowledge of folk, jazz and all the twentieth century’s classic tunesmiths, and yet they seem to create a magical, otherworldly space of her own imagining, blending Caoilfhionn’s core piano with synths, and pitting a live rhythm section and saxophone embellishments against ambient samples and future-facing production techniques.

Confident, exploratory and often jaw-droppingly sublime, this incredible album properly announces Caoilfhionn Rose’s arrival as a fresh creative force for 2024. 

Caoilfhionn has always pursued music with a fierce commitment. When a period of illness in her late teens caused a delay in starting a Music degree at Newcastle University she used the time constructively. She took a diploma in Music Production and Audio Engineering at Manchester MIDI School (Now School of Electronic Music), which leant heavily towards electronic music, imbuing her with a progressive outlook towards sound manipulation. Later studying music at university in Newcastle, she’d make sound experiments and field recordings, posting tracks online under the alias Audrey Daydreamer, and eventually an EP, under her own name. That was how I got involved with Gondwana,” she explains, “because Matthew [Halsall, label boss] heard the EP, and he came to see me play at a café called The Art of Tea, and asked if I’d like to record for Gondwana.” 

Constellation features contributions from Halsall’s rhythm section, drummer Alan Taylor and bassist Gavin Barras, as well as Jordan Smart from Mammal Hands, whose supple sax exquisitely colours the fringes of most of its songs. Also guesting: John Ellis, former member of The Cinematic Orchestra, beatifically tinkling the ivories at the end of ‘Fall Into Place’, and producer Aaron Wood via a raft of ambient samples adding textured loveliness throughout ‘Rainfall’.

“I love being open to collaboration,” Rose enthuses, “and the record’s a collage, knitting together all these influences, sounds and players, and just really going for it with the experimentation in the production.” 

Constellation sees her broaden the range of her singing, from the pure natural expression of her earlier records, to using it more as an instrument, sometimes more as abstract sound than as conventional verbal delivery. “It’s all playful and experimental,” she summarizes, “seeing what we could come up with that’s imaginative.” And she has learnt to use “her artistic license just to let the words be as they are”, to write in a momentary, impressionistic, almost painterly way. One example was how the word ‘constellation’ just fell into her head – “like, out of the cosmos” – while recording that song, so in it went. It also seemed emblematic of many aspects of the album – the theme of connectedness, her little cluster of Gondwana family musicians, and a pervasive feel of stargazing awe in the music. It obviously made a fitting album title, too.

And so, Caoilfhionn Rose’s collage of differing influences and inspirations, players and processes, cohered into a miraculous and quietly powerful body of work, which stands as a testament to artistic adventure, to both improvisation and hard work, to trusting our connection to nature, other people and music itself. As such, Constellation surely deserves to put her on a much bigger stage by the year’s end.

Constellation

Music GB

Discover Constellation by Caoilfhionn Rose on Gondwana Records. A blend of folk, jazz, and modern sounds in this experimental album. Vinyl records available.