As a pianist, Orton gravitates toward dark, silvery cobwebs of melody, repeated motifs that drift in and out of the light.
On first listen, more than any one song, you will most likely be struck by individual sounds and textures. The spiritual predecessors are other transformative records defined by their atmosphere-Van Morrison’s Astral Weeks, Bruce Springsteen’s Nebraska, Talk Talk’s Spirit of Eden. Only now she invites more people to stand alongside her, following her paths to their own ends. Surrounded by an ensemble of musicians who tend to elevate every record they appear on-drummer Tom Skinner, multi-instrumentalist Shahzad Ismaily, bassist Tom Herbert, and saxophonist Alabaster dePlume-Orton lets each song remain true to its origin as a solitary spiral. And while she has stated the experience of listening to it with other people has been “excruciating,” the music creates a completely different effect when opened up to the world: It is immersive, soothing, and communal.
These are fragile, isolating moments, and fittingly, Weather Alive is the first of Orton’s eight records that she self-produced.
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