Kali Malone is an American composer and organist based in Stockholm. Her works implement unique tuning systems in minimalist form for analog and digital synthesis often combined with acoustic instrumentation.[4][5][6]
In 2016 she co-founded the record label and concert series XKatedral, together with Maria W Horn, in Stockholm.
In 2019, she released The Sacrificial Code, featuring nearly two hours of pipe organ compositions, through iDEAL Recordings. The album made the year-end lists of Pitchfork,[7]The Wire,[8] and 2019 Album of the Year from Boomkat.[9]
In 2022, she released Living Torch, a 33-minute piece presented in two movements. It was commissioned by the French electroacoustic music studio Groupe de Recherches Musicales (GRM) for its loudspeaker orchestra, the Acousmonium.[10] The album features a departure of the pipe organ that typified Malone's music. It features a mélange of acoustic and electronic instruments including the trombone and bass clarinet to the more experimental boîte à bourdon.[11] It was composed by Malone in 11-odd limit just intonation. The trombone and bass clarinet were recorded in meticulous individual parts to match each computer-generated sound wave. It was stitched together by Malone with heavily textured drones as well as the boîte à bourdon and sounds generated from the ARP 2500 modular synthesizer unit owned by Éliane Radigue.[10] Malone composed and produced the album at the GRM in Paris between 2020 and 2021.[12] It is the first collaboration between the GRM and its new label-partner Shelter Press, continuing the Portraits GRM record series which Peter Rehberg of Editions MEGO set the foundation for in 2012.[13] The album was premiered at the GRM in October 2021, three months after Rehberg's death.[10] The album was released by Portraits GRM on July 7, 2022.
In 2023, she released Does Spring Hide Its Joy, a collaboration with Sunn O))) member Stephen O'Malley and British cellist Lucy Railton. It was composed and recorded between March and May 2020 in the empty concert halls of Berlin Funkhaus and MONOM during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Malone plays tuned sine wave oscillators on the album while O'Malley appears on electric guitar and Lucy Railton on cello.[14] The album consists of an hour-long composition presented in three versions—each a minor variation on the titular piece.[1][15][16] It was released through O'Malley's Ideologic Organ label on January 20, 2023.[14]
Discography
Studio albums
Title
Details
Velocity of Sleep
Released: August 25, 2017
Label: XKatedral, Bleak Environment
Cast of Mind
Released: May 8, 2018
Label: Hallow Ground
The Sacrificial Code
Released: June 27, 2019
Label: iDEAL Recordings
Living Torch
Released: July 7, 2022
Label: Portraits GRM
Does Spring Hide Its Joy (featuring Stephen O'Malley & Lucy Railton)
