Cotton, Alison - The Gods Laugh

"Cotton may expand folk’s raw emotions into more avant garde territories, but they still feel possessed by a blood-red muscle memory that goes back centuries." 

Alison Cotton’s fifth solo album is a mesmerizing weave of haunted atmospherics and avant-folk songcraft. Built around her viola, harmonium, and transportive vocals, the album moves between stark drone passages and more layered arrangements with piano, percussion, and synths. 

The Gods Laugh is a work of quiet, sublime intensity, cementing Cotton’s unique space in the contemporary English music scene — a space where richly textured sonics meet tradition, and deeply personal compositions evoke the experimental spirit of artists like Nico, John Cale, and Dorothy Carter.