On their new mini-album Butterfly Lightning Shakes The Earth the award-winning American-Canadian cellist India Gailey (she/they) offers listeners more than just the robust and insightful cello playing heard on previous releases. Here, the Halifax resident treats us to a program of their own compositions exclusively. Three solo miniatures, Mountainweeps,open the recording. Originally written for Arlen Hlusko in 2020, the suite explores the impact of climate change on alpine environments. The longer titular composition is effectively a cello concerto that Gailey performs with Symphony Nova Scotia (under the baton of Karl Hirzer and musical direction Holly Mathieson). Both works display Gailey’s uncanny gift for seamlessly integrating timbral interest and an accessible, often generously melodic, way of navigating pitch. This tendency imbues their compositions with a sort of magical quality and expresses welcome disregard for the supposed boundary between more experimental or avant-garde contemporary music with more conventional approaches. As such, Gailey’s handling of orchestral forces manages somehow to deliver the evocative power of Romantic-era repertoire without resembling the music of said era.
Named by CBC as one of “30 hot Canadian classical musicians under 30,” India Gailey has toured extensively across the Western hemisphere, performing and/or holding residencies at Domaine Forget, the Banff Centre, Garth Newel Music Center, Halifax Jazz Festival, OBEY Convention, Open Waters Festival, Guelph Jazz Festival, Suoni Per Il Popolo, and the Tuckamore Festival. Gailey has received numerous honours, including awards from the Nova Scotia Talent Trust, the Canada Council for the Arts, Acadia University, and McGill University. In 2021, she was bestowed with an “Emerging Artist Recognition Award” from Arts Nova Scotia. The album To you through was also “Classical Recording of the Year” at the 2023 Music Nova Scotia Music & Industry Awards.
TRACKS
1. Mountainweeps: I. glacial light fluttering in the wind
2. Mountainweeps: II. naked of an ancient watery sheath
3. Mountainweeps: III. leaking fauna and stones
4. Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth: I. SKY
5. Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth: II. GOLDEN
6. Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth: III. JOINING
CREDITS
Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth
Composer: India Gailey
Performers: India Gailey, solo cello; Symphony Nova Scotia; Karl Hirzer, conductor
Mountainweeps recorded and mixed by John D.S. Adams at Stonehouse Sound, Mahone Bay, Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia, 2024.
Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth recorded live by Rod Sneddon with John D.S. Adams, mixed by Rod Sneddon, January 11, 2024 at the Upstream Music Open Waters Festival, St. Andrew’s Church, Kjipuktuk/Halifax, Mi’kma’ki/Nova Scotia.
Produced by Jeff Reilly
Recorded and mixed by Rod Sneddon & John D.S. Adams
Mastered by John D.S. Adams, Stonehouse Sound
Photography by Meghan Tansey Whitton; hair & makeup by Emily Moore
Design by India Gailey
Publicity by Nick Storring
www.indiayeshe.com
IG FB @india.yeshe
Butterfly Lightning Shakes the Earth is available from:
Redshift Records 