Madison Willing - Birth (2024)

About Birth [EXITLP024]

Birth is Madison Willing’s solo LP debut, and an assured statement of her artistic approach. Expressive,
expansive and cinematic, it retains the rich visual symbolism and filmic qualities that propel her work as a
rising composer for film and TV. However, this is met with an acute intimacy which feels fitting for her first full
length solo project and expansion into the electronica genre.
There is a tactile, almost multisensory feel to Birth, which navigates the gentle emotional contours of interior
thought and exterior being:
“Written in the depths of Winter, Birth feels blue, intimate, cold and distant. I am most interested in
how the light interacts with the dark, uncomfortable nightmarish feelings of anxiety and depression,
and I wanted to see how I could make those things sound beautiful.” - Madison Willing
Illustrating an interest in contrast and chiaroscuro, Madison’s thoughtful approach to the record’s concept
demonstrates her skill at modulating emotion and ‘felt’ qualities into sound.
As such, Exit Records feels like a great home for Birth, encouraging us to consider how we encounter worlds
of sound. At face value, an ostensibly drum-and-bass label feels a bold choice for an ostensibly neo-classical
album. However, it is this desire to blur and disrupt assumed boundaries that unites Madison Willing and
dBridge, and underwrites their artistic and personal relationship thus far.
The pair met in 2020, after chance led dBridge to listen to a Madison Willing mixtape on Soundcloud written
during the strange and gentle inertia of covid lockdown #1. This planted the seed for the growth of a close
artistic affinity, leading ultimately to their joint EP Made In Silence [EXIT097], so-called as it was composed
wholly over text. Over this process, Madison and dBridge discovered that, in spite of the differences in their
output (i.e. classical film composer, dnb producer-DJ), their musical sensibilities were shared.
There is a pleasing circularity, then, that Madison’s solo debut should come via Exit and dBridge. The
respect and trust that the pair hold for one another no doubt contributes to Birth’s musical identity: vulnerable
and delicate, yet assured and serene.