Angharad Davies, Rhodri Davies, Michael Francis Duch, Lina Lapelytė, John Lely, John Tilbury

Goldsmiths gathers a distinguished sextet into an evocative session at St James Hatcham Church, South London: John Tilbury (piano), Angharad Davies and Lina Lapelyte (violins, Lapelyte also on voice), Michael Duch (double bass), John Lely (objects, electronics, melodica), and Rhodri Davies (electric harp, melodica). Against a backdrop of rich acoustics, the album presents four pieces - three composed (Sarah Hughes’ "A Reward is Offered," John Lely’s "DawnChorus," Jürg Frey’s "Für sieben" for septet) and a final collective improvisation. The group’s approach is never insistent, instead proposing discrete gestures, nuanced timbres, and ambiguous forms that drift between notation and spontaneous invention.​

Hughes’ opener uses cryptic text fragments and a field-like score, resulting in sparse clouds, offbeat harmonics, and melodic threads that cut through silence. Lely’s "Dawn Chorus" exploresgradual evolution and environment - delicate piano, voices, and objects merge into subtle layersthat evoke morning stillness. Frey’s septet anchors the recording: fragile, poised, and brimmingwith sonic patience. Throughout, Tilbury’s piano adds depth, Davies’s electric harp and melodicasparkle with unpredictable resonance, string players ground the ensemble, while electronics and voice cast fleeting shadows.

The closing improvisation embodies the album’s ethos of radical openness and gentle risk-taking - each musician attends to the sonic environment, responding to history, context, and spontaneous emergence. In every piece, the group privileges collective listening above virtuosity. Goldsmiths stands as a testament to chamber music’s capacity for subtle transformation, showing how restraint, poise, and mutual attention yield a world of luminosity and elusive beauty.