Last seen (by me, at least) as composer at a Wigmore Hall concert featuring Héloïse Werner (The Plot: review). Zoë Martlew now steps forward into the limelight of the recorded arena with her first complete album: two tasters have been released. From my first experience of her over two decades ago in her show Zoë Unleashed …. Unhinged, uncensored, underwired! as part of the Semley Music Festival in 2004 (review), it was clear that here is a composer/performer who has a unique, and seemingly endless, energy.
The enterprising label NMC will soon release a disc of Martlew’s music: Album Z. Here’s the album’s promo video:
The release date is on November 28; but a couple of tracks have been pre-released:
G-Lude, with its rhythmic breathing and its exploration of cello space from lowest to highest reflects Martlew-as-force-of-Nature. It includes, also, the most ethereal, harmonic-driven moments of extreme beauty. Ir shadows the architecture of Bach’s G-Major Prelude (on which it is based):
This is currently issued as a pre-release single on various platforms: this is the NMC stream, here’s Spotify:
The other pre-release is in perfect contrast, part of Martlew’s song-cycle In the Park, the movement entitled “In the Kyoto Garden” (as in the one in Holland Park, Kensington). The singer here is the miraculous Alessandro Fisher (see also this post, his Rubicon disc A Gardener’s World), whose purity of tone is perfect for the opening words, “Still pool.” against piano droplets from the ever-musical Lana Bode (one of the finest collaborative pianists around today). “A peacock cries” go the words, as those birds so often do there!; this is a portrait of the internal stillness the Kyoto Garden can inspire (I say “can,” as the number of tourists there these days makes that less and less attainable; 20 years ago, full-blooded solo meditation was regularly possible!):
Martlew’s sources of inspiration are certainly wide: Nibiru for horn and electronics (featuring Ben Goldscheider) is based on an ancient Babylonian apocalypse myth, while Musae is a song-cycle to Martlew’s own texts based on female archetypes, each portrayed via a different musical style (Lucy Schaufer and Hew Watkins). Atma for solo clarinet and electronics features Mark Simpson, and emerges from the breath sounds of its title into an exploration of consciousness itself. Nick My Pearls is a tribute to Nicholas Daniels the oboist, and acts as a jazz-flecked encore to the progamme.
… and while we await the release of the album, this should keep you occupied: follow this link.to Martlew’s YouTube playlist, which includes a host of material, including session videos for Album Z, and excerpts of her Review Z, including the bit where Martlew applies “some discipline” #nicheinterests.
The musicians on Album Z are the great and good of the UK music scene today: Ben Goldscheider (horn), Lucy Schaufer (mezzo), Huw Watkins (piano), Mark Simpson (clarinet), Alessandro Fisher (tenor), Lana Bode (piano) and Nicholas Daniel (oboe).
The disc will be available at Amazon here. And here’s a link to the King’s Place launch concert on January 9th, 2026.
