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Leave No Shadow

by Chrysanths

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.

      £8 GBP  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Limited Edition Rose Pink Vinyl with printed inner sleeve including lyrics. Includes a digital download code for 320kps mp3s. The Leave No Shadow limited edition vinyl comes with a special 24-page score and play-along CD, arranged and illustrated by Emily Scott. The CD presents the record remixed without piano or vocals as a play-along version, so that listeners to the record can learn the piano parts and read the lyrics to find their own way into thesongs. Illustrations of small objects found around Scott’s home at the time of writing decorate the score.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Leave No Shadow via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £27 GBP or more 

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Rose Pink Vinyl with printed inner sleeve including lyrics. Includes a digital download code for 320kps mp3s.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Leave No Shadow via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £22 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Gatefold CD including fold-out lyric sheet.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Leave No Shadow via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Download available in 24-bit/44.1kHz.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £10 GBP or more 

     

1.
Snow 04:28
Like that kind of snow that doesn’t melt for days and days They move it on and move it off the streets in spades of grey I’m leaving this town for a hinterland The trees bending down with their winter-brown hands Feelings rise and then grow colder with the seasons People come and people go for different reasons I’m leaving this town for a breathing place The moon in her gown, the river weaving round her face
2.
Rising 03:39
Love comes rising to the surface The peaty waters that preserve us Oh how sweetly it came to pass Oh how gently it sang its breathing last Love comes rising, a slow unfolder The paper thins as it grows older Oh how simply the ties were bound Oh how swiftly it sank beneath the ground There were days we were all we had Summer felt so long And into the night a constant star A channelling cannoning arrow in time
3.
Late Bloomer 04:08
And in your eye a passer by A little ray of stealth A gold thread and it’s gone A flit, a flash, a shard of glass They say I’m not myself The light tread of the dawn The crow nesting, a piece of string Comes just when you need it The clouds content above The wool that winds, the friends you find A fire when you need it The gentle bend of love
4.
Landscapes 04:15
Tell me what you think is real All the things you’re meant to do Shells for colour, stones for feel These are all good friends to you The mild green of the dawn Walk me on that boarded path Lay me down a grassy bed Weave a little reeded raft Leave me now for I am dead A fine evensong Like a sapling’s bending truth The seeds that blow like ladies’ hair Like a wave that’s rendered smooth Remember me when I am air The wild wind leading on
5.
Greenhouse 03:44
In the garden, winter’s crown Summer sang us into the ground Quiet company of the river Let her come to me, let her carry me with her All that is surplus falls to the side Spring returns us into our stride Flying, feeling free as the linnet A rising reeling sea, the cold concealing me within it
6.
Stones 03:42
You’re waiting on the phone without a sound You know, words break me more than stones, hands down I leave no shadow, leave no shadow, oh no We float in outer space alone Just so that we should know our place back home I leave no shadow, leave no shadow, oh no Things you love the most, things that you might save the time for, it’s all the same See she learns, she grows, a woman of her age, but loves get lost, and times are strange Lord knows what I have done at all to crow High as the highest sun before the fall I leave no shadow, leave no shadow, oh no
7.
Blinds 03:19
Had a little, wanted more Winter drew me to your door Something blindsided me, came unbidden Ever so quietly like a kitten Everything light in me cried your name Love defend me when I’m dead Life suspend me in my bed Neither too early be nor latecomer Every so easily like the summer When all that believes in me breathes your names
8.
Repose 03:38
If I could sleep Like the darkest wood is deep Cat comes walking, following the shadows on the street Let’s go stalking, talking to the other cats we meet And gold, coming through a crack in the blind Summer lies in state Blackbird side-eyes a mate Wake me gently, even if it means I will be late Mother, make me the heaviest of dreams a feather’s weight And gold, coming through a crack in the blind
9.
Fleet 03:56
Tell the truth I see them flying from the roof The undercut before the wood And rising and rising and rising Hard-lining past the sun Oh, that’s as good as it’s gonna be Flipping on the fly-by, flash as one Weaving the way ’til the summer is come Tell no lie Straight as that arrow in the sky That hits the heart of it more than it should Like kindness on kindness on kindness Fair play, October light Oh, that’s as good as it’s gonna be More frickin’ gorgeous every night Feeling your way until every ray is right

about

Dancing slowly into view with grace and poise, Chrysanths’ debut album Leave No Shadow feels like a major work from the start. A deep, technicolour world landscaped by multi-instrumentalist
Emily Scott, Leave No Shadow evokes the immediacy of the moment, the richness of the senses, the flow and drama of existence. Intersecting with her fluid piano playing, Scott weaves complex string
arrangements that invite in her effortless vocal performances. It’s the sound of a unique artist finding their voice.

Recorded in Scotland with Emily Scott firmly in the producer’s chair, Leave No Shadow finds the artist flowering in new territory from that associated with her band, Glasgow-based Modern
Studies. The most distinctive sonic elements here are the swirling, enveloping string arrangements written by Scott. With Susan Bear’s thoughtful bass guitar and Owen Curtis Williams’s delicate
drums, the album takes on a luxurious timbre reminiscent of Jean Claude Vannier’s late 60s studio work or the evocative world-building of Fontana-era Scott Walker.

At the centre of each track, Scott’s songwriting is simultaneously elegiac and celebratory. Though classically trained on the double bass, Scott’s string work is instinctive and natural; whilst informed
by romantic composers like Debussy or Bartók, they feel novel and full of wonder. At times the strings paint in widescreen or switch to become hyper-focused on small details, they often rise into
almost unbearable tension before cresting and falling in pure aural pleasure. Accompanying herself on piano, each song is powered by an internal drama that is linear, with the narratives stretching out,
delivered with aplomb and reflection. The melting violins and sweeping wall of strings throughout Leave No Shadow recall Puccini’s romantic, painterly string elegies (not least his 1890 work
Cristantemi - Chrsyanthemums) but there’s an unmistakable feeling of an artist in full flow, fully immersed in their vision and its unfolding. Scott may be immersed in Chrysanths’ world but it’s a world with a door open to the listener, a door to a secret garden full of small miracles.

Written between 2020-22, Leave No Shadow finds Scott revelling in insularity, zooming in on the small details of her home and immediate environment, spinning universes of sound that feel like they
erupt from every moment. Although Chrysanths’ compositions and timbres are sometimes mournful,they’re infused with colour and bold shifts in tone that often provoke joy. The introspection of the
writing invites the listener into Chrysanth’s private world, a flowering imagination full of the immediacy of the senses.

First track Snow’s exquisite use of the stereofield feels lush and deep, recalling Scott Walker’s It’s Raining Today or Kate Bush circa The Sensual World. The cascading piano figure feels like the
lightest snowflakes falling in flurries. On Rising, the tone is darker, moon-lit and crystalline with a lurching drum pattern that Scott’s vocal sweeps on top of with intricate string arrangements delicious in their dramatic tension. The effect recalls Nick Cave’s sense of the macabre but the clear delight Scott is taking in the creative process shines through the darkness. On album centrepiece Stones, the drums, piano and vocal push the strings into a supporting role, with Scott’s intoning of “Leave no shadow at all,” and descriptions of floating in space. The narrator is flying upward into the sun, an Icarus pirouetting into the light, leaving neither shadow nor trace of themselves back on Earth. OnBlinds, there’s an inherent dread in the changes, a wintery creep that resolves into major key before leaping out into darkness. The bedrock of strings and chromatic runs on piano recall the mid-70s work of Alice Coltrane although, without a distracting mysticism, Chrysanth’s music feels rooted in the here and now, in the innate drama of one moment bleeding into the next.

Chrysanths, or Chrysanthemums, are traditionally considered flowers of death and mourning in the west. While there is an embedded sadness in Emily Scott’s work on Leave No Shadow, the complexity and deft touch employed by the musician also points to renewal. In tarot, Death teaches one to outgrow ways of life, points to personal growth and rebirth. Death also teaches us to celebrate the now, to focus on the present and to celebrate life. Leave No Shadow embodies these sentiments, reflecting on the small treasures we move amongst. Chrysanths' fluid storytelling unlocks wave upon
wave of emotion and aural joy: Sometimes fierce, often gentle, always here and always now

credits

released September 13, 2024

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about

Chrysanths Glasgow, UK

Chrysanths is the sad solo work of Emily Scott.

Scott is also front woman of the chamber pop band Modern Studies.

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