For over a decade, the notion that the London-based multidisciplinary artist continually seeks to capture is naturalistic beauty. On her earlier 2019 EP, Lonely City, she mixed her saxophonist practice with synthesisers and drum machines to interrogate the agony and ecstasy of urban living – a site obviously at odds with natural ecosystems. Then, her 2023 debut album, Sample the Sky, took her and listeners airborne, untethered up in the clouds, through blissful harps and elevating vocal harmonisations. Its follow-up acoustic counterpart, Sample the Earth, saw Misch return downward to the earth, zeroing in on how geology and its branches inform her artistry.
Misch sculpted Lithic following said principle: Doubling down on her return to the earth, offering a literally grounding journey that beholds a deeply textural scope. It’s easily her most expansive, both in terms of length and sonic breadth. Lithic features Misch’s sax playing and voice processed through electronics, but they’re no longer against an incongruent force, such as the industrial tones of Lonely City. “Where do we go from here?” Misch asks on the pattering, xylophone-driven “Scrolls” – her answer is, as alluded to prior, to travel on the world’s surface. Some rhythms on Lithic were born from Misch improvising in spacious caves and quarries. This wider soundstage serves as an invitation to reconnect with and savour the finite, natural world that came well before us.
This protective intention, consistent with Misch’s past works, has been deftly consolidated on this latest release. Thus, her considered sensory ambience feels especially coherent. “Breathing” truly evokes the greenery above the soil beneath our feet, inhaling the air, the song’s enlarging strings embodying their lungs. Misch’s music still possesses a danceable pulse on songs like the brooding “Echoes” and the scampering “Siren”, but Lithic’s contents are largely sparse.
Raindrops underscore the monolithic ambience in “Fo(r)est”; longtime collaborator Alfa Mist lends his pianism to accompany Misch’s spoken-word on “Jealousa”; and the amorphous synth-and-sax passage “Mythic” is an illuminating meditation. Each illustrates the world’s transformation through natural weathering over time, communicating with the past and future. Misch’s mission, therefore, seems most fulfilled on Lithic – she encourages a spiritual and physical relationship with our shared ancestors, which we should continually nurture.
