Description

Poppy Ackroyd – Resolve

Resolve is available on CD, 12″ 180g black double vinyl and as a limited edition print bundle.

A classically trained pianist, violinist, producer, and composer, Ackroyd turned heads in the neo-classical world with her previous works Escapement and Feathers, as well as her involvement in Hidden Orchestra (Tru Thoughts).

Having played alongside giants of the genre, Hauschka and Nils Frahm, the unique musician returns, fresh off the back of mini-album Sketches, with her brand new self-produced full-length record – her most ambitious and progressive piece of work to date. 

Ackroyd plays a combination of both upright and grand piano, and even plays the inside of the instrument using fingers, drumsticks and plectrums. She then arranges and multi-tracks the resulting sounds. The artist employed the same technique to record herself playing violin, pianino, harmonium and spinet, as well as other musicians playing cello, flute, clarinet, bass clarinet and hang.

Although a keen collaborator outside of her solo work – having created soundtracks for film, dance, physical theatre and radio – this is the first record for which Poppy has written for and employed other players, including Manu Delago (Björk, Cinematic Orchestra, Anoushka Shankar) playing hang, Mike Lesirge (Bonobo, Andreya Triana) playing clarinets and flute, and Jo Quail on cello. 

Through studying contemporary classical piano works and listening to electronic music, Ackroyd quickly developed her signature compositional style on previous albums, using contemporary pianistic ideas, whilst also inhabiting the world of sound beyond the keyboard, using extended techniques to play other parts of the instruments as well. The innovative artist works by recording improvised contemporary classical piano motifs and then rearranging and manipulating these sounds digitally. The result is a fantastic fusion of acoustic and electronic in a post-classical vein.

Poppy has created and printed a limited edition etching. The etching is an aquatint, hand-etched on a copper plate, and printed in London on a Victorian copper plate press, onto Somerset hot press paper. 
The image is based on the final Resolve album cover, which was created from a photograph by Kat Gollock and designed by Poppy Ackroyd.

Watch the creation of ‘Resolve’ Limited Edition Etching video: https://youtu.be/FhNtzYvxNe0