| Ultraviolet | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 2, 2018 | |||
| Recorded | 2018 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 44:58 | |||
| Language | Instrumental | |||
| Label | Warp | |||
| Producer |
| |||
| Kelly Moran chronology | ||||
| ||||
Ultraviolet is a 2018 album by Kelly Moran, released on Warp. The album has received positive reviews.
I am trying to obfuscate exactly what the piano sounds like. The whole point is to make it sound different.
— Kelly Moran, 2018 [1]
Ultraviolet is the first release by Moran on Warp. [2] Moran was inspired by the sounds of nature and tried to reproduce them on the recording. [2] She went to the prepared piano she has used on 2017's Bloodroot and improved with the instrument, adding synthesizer later. [1]
On April 8, 2018, Moran released the music video to "Water Music". Directed by Katharine Antoun, the video shows a montage of meditative abstract imagery: iridescent splashes of color produced by Turkish marbling, microscopic footage of cellular activity, Moran’s own face and hands, and an uncanny CGI blob. Andy Cush of Spin explained: "With deft editing, the visuals become more than screensaver-ish visual ambience, tracking the rising tension of the sounds with increasingly quick cuts between images." [3]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 81/100 [4] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    [5] |
| Exclaim! | 9/10 [6] |
| MusicOMH | [7] |
| PopMatters | 9/10 [8] |
| Pitchfork Media | 7.6/10 [9] |
| Tiny Mix Tapes | 4/5 [10] |
| Under the Radar | 7/10 [11] |
According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Ultraviolet received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 81 out of 100 from 10 critic scores. [4] Pitchfork Media's Philip Sherburne gave the album 7.6 out of 10, summing up his review, "The excess is thrilling. It’s here where Moran feels the most unfettered and uninhibited—not just balancing opposing forces, but reveling in their collision and savoring the way the frequencies fly, like raindrops buffeted by gusts of wind." [9] Evan Coral at Tiny Mix Tapes gave the album four out of five, with a review that is itself written in a post-modern style, highlighting Moran's inspiration from John Cage and emphasizing her innovation with a prepared piano. [10] Paul Simpson of AllMusicGuide also referenced her innovation at piano preparation in his review, giving the album 3.5 out of five, saying the work is "far more expressive than one might expect from an album of prepared piano music". [5] Regarding her inspiration to post-minimalism, Spyros Stasis of PopMatters ends his nine out of 10 review writing, "Starting from a minimal perspective, with a solitary piano as the main guide through this journey, she can awaken a pronounced ethereal and light characteristic, but further infuse it with a darker element." [8] Exclaim! 's Tom Beedham also gave it a nine out of 10 and contrasted the album's influences in his assessment: "Ultraviolet is indebted to the charm of the natural world, but with it, Moran unlocks dazzling new ones in the process, keys jammed firmly between the strings of her instrument". [6]
| Publication | Accolade | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Exclaim! | Exclaim!'s Top 10 Experimental and Modern Composition Albums of 2018 | 8 [12] |
| Gigwise | Gigwise's Top 51 Albums of 2018 | 7 [13] |
| Paste | Paste's Top 50 Albums of 2018 | 40 [14] |
| Pitchfork | Pitchfork's Top Experimental Albums of 2018 | N/A [15] |
| PopMatters | PopMatters' Top 70 Albums of 2018 | 41 [16] |
| PopMatters' Top 25 Electronic Albums of 2018 | 14 [17] | |
| PopMatters' Top 20 Avant-Garde and Experimental Albums of 2018 | 14 [18] | |
| Spin | Spin's Top 51 Albums of 2018 | 33 [19] |
| Time Out New York | Time Out New York's Top 16 Albums of 2018 | N/A [20] |
All songs written by Kelly Moran
Faith in Strangers is the third studio album by English electronic musician Andy Stott. It was released on 18 November 2014 by Modern Love. The album received critical acclaim, and the title track "Faith in Strangers" was given Best New Track and placed at number 81 on Pitchfork's list of the 100 best tracks of 2014. As with Stott's previous album Luxury Problems, Faith in Strangers also incorporates vocals from his former piano teacher, Alison Skidmore.
The Expanding Flower Planet is the first studio album by Deradoorian, a former member of Dirty Projectors. It was released on Anticon on August 21, 2015. Co-produced with Kenny Gilmore, it features contributions from Jeremy Hyman, Michael Lockwood, Niki Randa, and Arlene Deradoorian. The title of the album comes from a Chinese mandala tapestry that hung in Deradoorian's studio.
Elaenia is the debut studio album by British electronic musician Sam Shepherd, released under his alias Floating Points on 6 November 2015 by Shepherd's own Pluto label and Luaka Bop. Shepherd created the artwork for the album by connecting fibre-optic cables to a home made harmonograph. Shepherd had originally conceived the album to contain only one track but was advised against the idea and eventually cut the music into seven songs. Elaenia's title track was named when Shepherd experienced a dream about a bird that became engulfed in a forest after he had been reading the speculative fiction novel Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives by American neuroscientist David Eagleman.
Love Streams is the eighth studio album by Canadian electronic music musician Tim Hecker, released on April 8, 2016 on 4AD and Paper Bag Records. The album was recorded throughout 2014 and 2015 at Greenhouse Studios in Reykjavík, Iceland, where parts of Hecker's last two albums Virgins (2013) and Ravedeath, 1972 (2011) were recorded.
Tired of Tomorrow is the second studio album by American shoegaze band Nothing. It was released on May 13, 2016, by Relapse Records. It is the first Nothing album to feature bassist Nick Bassett, the guitarist of Whirr.
All That Must Be is the second studio album by English musician and producer George FitzGerald. It was released on 9 March 2018, under Double Six Records and Domino Recording Company.
Isolation is the debut studio album by American singer Kali Uchis, released worldwide on April 6, 2018, through Rinse Recordings and Virgin EMI Records. The album was supported by five singles: "Dead to Me", "Tyrant" featuring Jorja Smith, "Nuestro Planeta" featuring Reykon, "After the Storm" featuring Tyler, the Creator and Bootsy Collins, and "Just a Stranger" featuring Steve Lacy. The album was later certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
Grid of Points is the eleventh studio album by the American musician Liz Harris under the stage name Grouper. It was released in the United States on April 27, 2018, by Kranky.
Kelly Moran is an American composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist based in Brooklyn. Her music spans classical, electronic, minimalist, jazz, impressionist, and metal genres. In many of her compositions, Moran utilizes electronic musical techniques in combination with the John Cage-pioneered technique of the prepared piano. Moran signed with Warp Records in September 2018.
Working Class Woman is the fourth solo studio album by French-Canadian musician Marie Davidson. It was released on Ninja Tune on 5 October 2018.
After (stylized as (after)) is a live album by Mount Eerie, released in 2018. The album captures a live performance of songs from A Crow Looked at Me and Now Only recorded at the 2017 Le Guess Who? festival in the Netherlands.
Bloodroot is a 2017 album by Kelly Moran, released on Warp. The album has received positive reviews.
DJ-Kicks: Moodymann is a DJ mix compilation album by Moodymann. It was released as part of the DJ-Kicks series by Studio !K7 on February 19, 2016. It peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Top Dance/Electronic Albums chart, as well as number 21 on the Heatseekers Albums chart.
We Will Always Love You is the third studio album from Australian electronic group The Avalanches, released on 11 December 2020 through Modular Recordings.
Mazy Fly is the second studio album by American experimental pop musician Spellling, released in February 2019. It is her debut recording with Sacred Bones Records, making her labelmates with artists like Jenny Hval and Zola Jesus.
Once is the fifth EP by South Korean DJ and producer Peggy Gou, released on 2 March 2018 through Ninja Tune. It contains three songs, including the single "It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)".
