Album Review: The Exodus Suite by Gemma Ray

In the literary sense of the word, an epic is much more than an exciting story. It requires highs and lows, obstacles and aid, and a steady, sizable growth in character over the course of some life-changing scenarios. So when British singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Gemma Ray announced her seventh studio album The Exodus Suite as a “52-minute odyssey of epic torch song psychedelia,” she was certainly setting fans and critics up with pretty big expectations.

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Titled The Exodus Suite, the seventh LP from alternative singer/songwriter Gemma Ray is an immersive, nearly hourlong late-night gondola ride through trippy, seductive song. This time around, lead vocals and most instruments other than organ were recorded live in the studio during seven days at Candy Bomber Studios in Berlin, located in what until 2008 was a city airport. A striking unplanned influence on the recording sessions was the presence of some 8,000 Syrian refugees sheltered in the hangar below the studio -- regrettably fitting for an album that has the songwriter revisiting themes of personal and societal (though not explicitly political) alienation and trauma.

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