Caroline

Caroline, formed in 2017 in Manchester by cellist Jasper Llewellyn, guitarist and keyboardist Mike O’Malley and guitarist and vocalist Casper Hughes, debuted with the hypnotic single Dark Blue. An eight-piece ensemble (having acquired violinists Oliver Hamilton and Magdalena McLean, trumpeter Freddy Wordsworth, reed player Alex McKenzie and drummer Hugh Aynsley) recorded Caroline (2022), nonetheless a rather subdued and even lo-fi album. Their music is austere post-rock that sometimes feels like a chamber version of A Silver Mt Zion (the chaotic and meandering nine-minute Natural Death, the dissonant and incoherent Skydiving Onto the Library Roof), although Good Morning (Red) recalls lethargic Apalachian folk and IWR sounds like an ecstatic slow-motion psalm.