Hilary Woods - Acts Of Light (Transparent Red Vinyl)

Acts of Light is a fugue comprised of nine slow hypnotic dirges. Vulnerability, majesty, and candour elicited with drone, double bass, field recordings and sacred choral chant compose its private ritual. Born out of excavations and explorations in feeling, intuition and physicality through sound which culminated in her 2021 EP Feral Hymns, Acts of Light is a disquiet personal offering to wilderness, loss, absence, mystery and love supreme.

Its resonant, rich and weighted lament is both subterranean and chasmal whilst simultaneously detailed and tender, awakening hidden forms that emerge from the shadows with each listen. Textural dust and speckled light move slowly and expansively here through a deeply sonic and sensory rite of passage where Woods’ moving compositions confide in us feeling to be received with the entire body.

Recorded and mixed over a span of two years along the west coast of Ireland and in various other locations, including the Procathedral in Dublin where Woods recorded the choristers of the Palestrina Choir and Galway where she recorded the voices of Galway City Chamber Choir, string samples were recorded by Jo Berger Myhrein Oslo, whilst field recordings were recorded nomadically throughout her time spent travelling through the north and south of Spain.