Ashen
Humanity's Last Breath
Keywords
Reviews (3)
Folk radio UK
d. 1. Sep. 2023
By
By
Billy Rough
d. 1. Sep. 2023
"Artist of the month" - "Formed in 2018, the band has stretched, bent, and flexed Northumbrian traditional tunes and sounds into an elastic and richly invigorating listening experience. With Cloud Horizons, Tickell and her crew leap even further into the unknown, with a set of tunes and songs all newly composed but with resonances of the past and nods to the future. It's a visceral, thrilling, inspirational, and downright absorbing listen, with an uncanny ability to evoke history whilst keeping the sound resiliently fresh and modern".
Songlines
2023 October
By
By
Julian May
2023 October
"What we have here, Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening say, is "Ancient Northumbrian Futurism". This is not without risks: 'Gods of War' involves chanting and veers dangerously towards the parodic. But Tickell's piping on "Quilley Reel" sparkles then morphs into trippy electro beats; in "Caelestis" (which means "of the sky, heavenly") pipes and lyre lead on to overlapping vocals and electronics, and, mostly, 'Cloud Horizons' is exhilarating".
Uncut
2023 October
By
By
Nigel Williamson
2023 October
"Veteran folk heroine breaks new ground on 19th album: [Tickell's] 2019 album 'Hollowbone' found her embracing a more contemporary ambience, and 'Cloud Horizons' takes the process a step further. Her first album not to include any traditional material, there are edgily programmed breakbeats and trip-hop soundscapes, although the pipes remain rooted in the timeless Northumbrian landscape".