Simon Goff – Vale

The album ‘Vale’ by Simon Goff out now. The British violinist and composer’s dazzling exploration of the interface between violin and technology and between the poles of intimacy and grandeur, as rich and deep and wide as the landscape that lies its heart, named after the Vale of York where Goff grew up. The album encapsulates not just a landscape but a place in time and an identity forged through youth and adulthood, all viewed from his current base in Berlin.

Vale begins and ends by acknowledging the impact and beauty of nature and the elements, and in between those bookends, alchemises the energy of past and present into breathtaking and haunting vistas. From all the different frequencies Goff tuned into and digested for this album, some choppier than others, Vale turned out to be as rich and deep and wide as the landscape that lies its heart, the Vale of York. Goff looked for his voice and found Vale, but it’s the beginning of his journey rather than the end, the first marker of what promises to be a brilliant and absorbing adventure.

“Goff is an amiable companion on a ramble through the infinite possibility of your imagination.” Loud And Quiet – 8/10

Listen here