Eliza Marshallโs debut solo release, the โNew Birth EP,โ is a stirring testament to artistic reinvention and the power of global collaboration. Released on May 23, 2025, via Real World X, the EP is a transformative moment for the renowned flautist and composer. Comprising three original tracks recorded between Real World Studios in England and Dakar, Senegal, the EP effortlessly fuses classical training with world music influences, electronics, and field-recorded ambience.
The opening track, โNew Birth,โ lives up to its name with mystical awakening. Marshallโs flute is a curious spirit through layers of tribal percussion, swelling electronics, and soaring vocals, building motion and spiritual clarity. The driving drums provide a rhythmic undercurrent, while the flute flits and winds above it all with precision and freedom.
โFirst Lightโ opens more naturally, echoing forest-like ambience with a sound that very much resembles that of crickets. Meanwhile, sombre sonorous slow deep melodies writhe and open up with care and gentleness that moves you beyond words like a warm comforting soothing energy. A deep string undertone reverberates its immersive trails from underneath while every note of the flute and each percussive ripple fall with contemplative consideration. This sonic sunrise is fragile, meditative, and radiant, but unease creeps in toward the end, as distant echoes and eerie textures suggest the encroaching unknown.
Then comes โOur Times,โ a rhythmically complex track that Marshall likens to Steve Reichโs hypnotic minimalism. Rapid-fire percussion ticks and taps beneath a canopy of flute and haunting ambient textures. Despite its upbeat structure, the song carries an undercurrent of melancholy, a tension between movement and memory, presence and loss.
With collaborators from Senegal, The Gambia, and the UK, and production by Graeme Pleeth, โNew Birth EPโ is a cross-cultural, genre-blurring journey into sound and self. Listen to it on Spotify.
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Review by: Naomi Joan