Zoe Martlew - Zoë Martlew: Album Z (2025)

Zoë Martlew's Album Z is the latest in NMC’s acclaimed Debut Disc series. The album itself is a striking collection of works for solo instruments, voice and electronics, written over a six-year period between 2018 and 2024.

G-lude, a cello distortion rock-up performed by Martlew herself, opens the album with an explosive catharsis of shrieks, gasps, scrapes and howls, ghosting the architecture of Bach’s iconic G major prelude, on which it is based. Inspired by ancient Babylonian apocalypse myths, Niburu (Ben Goldscheider) suggests the vastness of deep space and the human soul, the horn lines weaving through dramatic electronic landscapes.

Martlew pivots from the interstellar to life on Earth within Musae, a song cycle for mezzo soprano and piano in her own texts, depicting five portraits of contrasting female archetypes performed by Lucy Schaufer and pianist Huw Watkins. Martlew shows her compositional skill and wit as each character is drawn in different musical style; from early Weimar cabaret to 90s pop, with a drop of 19th century Romanticism thrown in for good measure.

Scored for solo clarinet and electronics, Atma brings Mark Simpson’s virtuosity to the fore – as the music emerges from formless breath realms into a volatile, shifting sea of transformation, exploring different states of consciousness. In The Park, the second song cycle on the album, features tenor Alessandro Fisher and pianist Lana Bode. As with Musae, In the Park balances humour and humanity with the quiet spiritual thread that runs through all of Martlew’s work.

The album concludes with a glittering tribute to oboist Nicholas Daniel in Nick My Pearls You Cry. Performed by Daniels himself, along with pianist Huw Watkins, this joyful, jazz-drenched encore celebrates the shimmering virtuosity of both artists.

Album Z affirms Martlew’s unique voice in contemporary music: theatrical, fearless and deeply human.