Kaleidophonica

Kaleidophonica is the follow-up to Spiro's much-praised Real World album Lightbox, but it's different, says mandolin-player Alex Vann because "we've pushed the ideas and the systems music further". Jane Harbour, Spiro's violinist, argues that "we've taken the most intricate bits of Lightbox and taken the whole mesh to a higher level. And if it sounds as if there are more than four of us playing, it's because much of the time people are playing more than one part at the same time..."

...building in rhythmic and melodic complexity and bearing fruitful comparison with minimalist classical music and electronica...
the four band members use acoustic instruments to build exquisite loops, but Spiro do not simply reinvent the old but rather uncover deep harmonic and rhythmic structures that were in the music all along. ...shuddering cascades of notes...beautiful melancholy that is traditionally English and yet wholly of the now. Folk has never seemed so relevant.
(Kaleidophonica is a Songlines Top Of The World Album)
Songlines Magazine (UK)

This is a series of intensely visual pieces of music...
alternating snatches of shorter riffs and glimpses of traditional tunes with longer stretches of ebb and flow…. Comparisons have been made with Steve Reich and Philip Glass, but I'd like to add Michael Nyman to the mix. Rose Engine, Aerodrome and Swarm have a pop sensibility that infuses some of Nyman's work. It's all breathless stuff, genuinely unlike anything else, and exciting, rewarding and gorgeous in equal measure.
fRoots (UK)