By Azzam Bilal 
HangupsMusic.com – Leipzig, The intersection of architectural history and avant-garde composition has long been the playground of Kali Malone, but her latest announcement suggests a deeper immersion into the sacred and the ceremonial than ever before. Malone, the American-born, Stockholm-based composer who has become a revitalizing force in the world of pipe organ and minimalist music, has officially announced her new album, Burning Song. This upcoming release serves as the solo follow-up to her critically acclaimed 2024 double album, All Life Long, and represents a significant continuation of her exploration into the resonant possibilities of historical spaces and specialized tuning systems.
Recorded within the hallowed walls of the Thomaskirche (St. Thomas Church) in Leipzig, Germany, Burning Song is an album steeped in the weight of musical history. The Thomaskirche is globally recognized as the professional home of Johann Sebastian Bach, who served as the church’s cantor for the final 27 years of his life. It is also the site of Bach’s final resting place, making it a site of pilgrimage for musicians and historians alike. For Malone, the choice of location was far from ornamental. She performed the album’s compositions on the church’s celebrated "Bach Organ," a modern instrument crafted by the workshop of Gerald Woehl. Unlike many contemporary organs, this instrument was specifically designed to mirror the baroque tunings and temperaments that Bach himself would have utilized, providing a bridge between the 18th-century tonal logic and Malone’s own 21st-century experimentalism.
Accompanying Malone on this journey are two of her most frequent and formidable collaborators: Stephen O’Malley and Lucy Railton. O’Malley, best known as a founding member of the drone-metal pioneers Sunn O))), contributes his signature guitar work, which often functions as a grounding, subterranean force in Malone’s compositions. Lucy Railton, a world-renowned cellist and composer in her own right, brings a precision and textural sensitivity that complements the rigid, slow-moving structures of Malone’s organ work. This trio is the same unit that produced the monumental 2023 triple album Does Spring Hide Its Joy, a work that explored the perception of time and space through long-form, immersive drones. Their reunion for Burning Song suggests a refinement of the chemistry established during those sessions, now applied to the specific acoustic environment of the Thomaskirche.
To herald the announcement, Malone has released the album’s lead single, "Heavy With Fruit." The track serves as an immediate immersion into the sound world of Burning Song. It exhibits Malone’s characteristic patience, allowing the natural overtones of the Bach Organ to interact with the acoustic reflections of the church’s stone interior. The inclusion of guitar and cello provides a rich, spectral layering that blurs the lines between the mechanical breath of the organ and the string-based vibrations of her collaborators. The title itself, "Heavy With Fruit," evokes a sense of ripeness and impending change, fitting for an artist whose work often feels like it is on the verge of a slow-motion transformation.
The announcement of Burning Song comes during an exceptionally prolific period for Malone. Already in 2024, she released All Life Long, a sprawling collection that saw her expanding her palette beyond the organ to include brass and choir arrangements. Beyond her solo output, she has remained active in the collaborative sphere. Recently, she released Magnetism with Drew McDowall (formerly of Coil), a project that delved into modular synthesis and darker, more industrial textures. She also collaborated with cellist Leila Bordreuil on Music for Intersecting Planes, a record that focused on the spatial relationship between instruments. Furthermore, 2023 saw the reissue of her 2019 masterpiece The Sacrificial Code via the Ideologic Organ label, reminding listeners of the foundational work that established her as a master of the pipe organ’s modern potential.
Malone’s approach to the organ is academic yet deeply emotional. She is known for her rigorous study of "just intonation" and historical temperaments—tuning systems that differ from the standard "equal temperament" used in most modern Western music. By utilizing these older systems, she creates "beating" frequencies and harmonic relationships that can feel both ancient and alien. Recording at the Thomaskirche allowed her to engage directly with the Neidhardt temperament, a system Bach favored, which creates distinct "colors" for different keys. In Malone’s hands, these technical details become the building blocks for a profound meditative experience, where the listener is invited to focus on the microscopic shifts in sound over long durations.
The tracklist for Burning Song hints at a thematic narrative of transition, loss, and endurance. The seven compositions are titled:
- Grieving Figure
- Map the Path
- Bells on a Branch
- Crawling Ashore
- Sounding a Void
- Heavy With Fruit
- My Eve My Dawn
Titles like "Grieving Figure" and "Sounding a Void" suggest an exploration of the emotional resonance of space, while "Map the Path" and "My Eve My Dawn" point toward a sense of journey and renewal. Given the historical context of the recording site, there is an inescapable feeling of Malone "sounding" the history of the church itself, using the organ to communicate with the ghosts of the baroque era while maintaining a firmly contemporary perspective.
In tandem with the album announcement, Malone has detailed an extensive European tour that showcases the various facets of her artistry. The tour dates reflect the diverse ways Malone presents her music, ranging from electronic sets to solo organ performances and the full trio configuration.
The tour itinerary is as follows:
- 09-23 Lisbon, Portugal – Culgurest (Electronic set)
- 09-26 Cologne, Germany – St. Gertrud [Brutalism] (Electronic set)
- 10-11 Bern, Switzerland – Berner Münster [bee-flat] (Solo organ set)
- 11-29 Bratislava, Slovakia – Novy evanjelicky kostol [NEXT Festival] (Solo organ set)
- 01-28 London, England – St. Martin (Burning Song set)
- 01-29 London, England – St. Martin (Burning Song set)
- 01-31 Vernier, Switzerland – Madeleine Chapel – Espace de la Madeleine [Festival Antigel] (Burning Song set)
The "Burning Song" sets, scheduled for early 2025 in London and Vernier, will feature the trio of Malone, O’Malley, and Railton, bringing the specific arrangements of the new album to life in live settings that mirror the sacred atmosphere of the original recording. These performances at St. Martin in London, in particular, are expected to be highlights of the winter concert season, offering a rare opportunity to hear the trio’s synergy within a high-ceilinged, reverberant space.
For followers of Malone’s work, Burning Song represents more than just a new collection of music; it is an artifact of a specific time and place. By recording at the Thomaskirche, Malone has effectively collaborated with the architecture and history of Leipzig itself. The Bach Organ is not merely a tool in this process but a partner, its pipes and bellows providing the physical medium through which Malone’s mathematical and emotional inquiries are funneled.
As the music world awaits the full release of Burning Song, "Heavy With Fruit" provides a compelling glimpse into what is to come. It is music that demands stillness and attention, rewarding the listener with a sense of immense scale and intimacy. In an era of rapid-fire digital consumption, Kali Malone remains a steadfast proponent of the slow, the deep, and the resonant. With Burning Song, she continues to prove that the pipe organ, an instrument centuries old, still has new and profound secrets to reveal when placed in the hands of a visionary.
