Hilary Woods – Night CRIÚ | soundsfromthedarkside

Hilary Woods returns to song and brings forth her best work to date.

Known originally for her work as the bassist in Irish the alt-rock band JJ72, the solo journey of Hilary Woods has been a beautiful one. Since her debut Colt, Woods has forged a unique sound that connects beauty to the uncomfortable. This led her to the deep instrumental drone of Acts of Light which grabbed my attention in 2023. On this year’s Night CRIÚ, Woods offers a profound shift as her voice is now our guide through a melancholic, yet often dangerous, Irish landscape. Given these premises, leaving this unreviewed would undermine our namehandle, so shall we?

Woods possesses a rare talent for creating sounds that are eerie and deeply comforting at the same time. On the opening track, Voce, Italian for voice, the album’s full intentions are directly pushed to the foreground. A somber tone of ceremony with a mournful cello drone and slow percussion immediately establishes an atmosphere for deep, quiet concentration. This continues on Faults but is broken up by the surprise arrival of a moody playing brass band that brings in a strangely uplifting ceremonial grandeur. After only hearing two tracks it is clear that the dark soundscapes I know from her past work benefit greatly from the structure and emotion of her voice. The connection with the early works of Low is obvious, but also people who are fond of the brooding quality of bands like Tindersticks or Wreckmeister Harmonies won’t be disappointed.

The album also offers some abstract moments, like the drone-heavy Endgames or the field recording heavy Offerings, on which Woods’s voice is half-sung or half-spoken, turning the music into a personal reckoning with endurance. Here we are reminded of that other obscure great, Grouper, who stylistically overlaps Woods in the realm of dark ambient. My personal Night CRIÚ favorite has to be Taper. While mostly bleak, the song is hijacked in Pink Floyd-ish fashion by a children’s choir during the final chorus. Their high voices are simultaneously haunting and unnerving but also inject a moment of unexpected, almost divine light into the surrounding darkness. It’s an absolutely gorgeous moment placed at the perfect spot in the track sequence. Night CRIÚ fades out with Shelter which brings a string filled reflection that left me quiet for a moment…

… a very short moment of course, because I need to wrap this up by saying Hillary Woods has delivered a masterpiece with Night CRIÚ. You’ll only truly hear the deep soundscapes when you give them your full attention, and they’re best enjoyed as the days grow shorter and the skies turn grey. This album is dark but also offers a strange kind of comfort which gets richer after each play.