A Closer Listen
As the holy season approaches, we begin to long for music that makes our souls sing, while avoiding any saccharine sweetness. This year’s albums are united not by institutional frames, but by their spiritual tone. Listeners may feel their hearts moved, encounter a revelation, or experience a sense of calm.
These composers continue to cross boundaries and challenge assumptions of what spiritual music is or should be. Somehow they seem to draw nearer to the heart of faith than much denominational music does today. A new era calls for a new approach, and they have responded. Last year this feature returned following a twelve-year hiatus; this year we are pleased to announce that it is back for good.
Andrzej Pietrewicz & Haiyue Zhu ~ #10 (Self-Released)
Andrzej Pietrewicz released three albums this year, and any one of them could have made this list. #10 stands out as a single-track, album length piece. This collaboration, yet another example of the composer’s ever-expanding oeuvre, uses Psalm 129 as a launching point before traveling deep into the heart of the Great Unknowing.
Original Review
EUS ~ Completud (Pluvial)
Of course we were always going to include this album on our list! The cassette of holy drone is packaged in a hand-cut box with a sliding stained glass window. Choir, organ and distant church bells form a sonic morass that simultaneously obscures its origins and enhances contemplation. The goal is an encounter with the Divine; the sound is that of the Spirit heard from afar.
Original Review
Grails ~ Miracle Music (Temporary Residence Ltd.)
Grails have always walked a devotional path, but on Miracle Music the connection is made overt. The dynamic contrast is stunning, especially on “Silver Bells;” post-rock passages are touched by a psychedelic aura. To listen is to shift into a trance, through which the divine presence might enter; these musical mystics lead the supplicant to the altar, then allow them to choose their own paths.
Original Review
Jake Muir ~ Compana Sonans (enmossed)
Campana Sonans may be about the bells, but not just about the bells. Jake Muir wanders through the churches of Europe, recording not only the bells but the ringers and even the passers-by. It’s intriguing to hear these bells in concert with each other, creating new soundscapes of sound. The album is a reflection on history, time and religion, an historic document with a lasting peal.
Original Review
Lyra Pramuk ~ Hymnal (7K!)
Hymnals are many things: holy, traditional and revered; but hymnals are only exciting when they are new. Lyra Pramuk’s Hymnal, recorded in a Venetian cathedral and a cabin beneath the stars, restores the sense of wonder that follows an encounter one cannot explain. The music, anchored by Pramuk’s voice, is like nothing else on earth, fittingly the realm of the Spirit.
Original Review
Nobukazu Takemura ~ knot of meanings (Thrill Jockey)
Have you ever heard classic computers sing? They were not designed to do so, but Nobukazu Takemura coaxed it out of them, long before the prevalence of A.I. knot of meanings, inspired by the artist’s return to the Catholic faith, sounds like the church music of the future, by which time humanity has made peace with the forces it has created.
Original Review
Olivia Font ~ Invictam (Modern Obscure Music)
The set is born from loss and seeks the way to strength; the title means invincible or unconquered. Traveling through territories of grief, the album offers no swift solutions, while suggesting that the struggle can produce a deep, everlasting peace. Ana San Martin’s voice is the guide through the darkness, the silver thread that holds the set together.
Original Review
Paul Jebanasam ~ mātr (Subtext)
The latest of the albums on this list to be released, mātr is a reflection on deep time that operates as a metaphor, the primacy of piano in the center of the set like the ember of humanity, extinguished as quickly as it appears. Jebanasam proposes a way to live in balance with nature, to understand custodianship as collaboration, and to discover a deeper spiritual connection with the earth.
Original Review
Richard Hronsky ~ Pohreb (The Funeral) (mappa)
Pohreb (The Funeral) remembers a life through snippets of sound. Time folds in on itself as Hronsky returns to his family home, records the sounds around it, and resurrects the objects his grandparents held dear. There are memories here, and ghosts, their voices abraded by time yet still resonant, the closing choir singing through the ages, peeling back the years.
Original Review
Sara Perscio ~ Sphaîra (Subtext)
Worship music is not always happy; sometimes the world is falling apart, and prayer reflects despair. Sphaîra showcases the resonance of Tripoli’s abandoned Experimental Theatre, whose sparkling future was severed by civil war. A call to prayer reverberates through the rubble; somewhere the sun is still shining, and untroubled voices still sing.
Original Review
Richard Allen
Sun Dec 07 00:07:04 GMT 2025