Catherine Graindorge

Gorgeous and haunting, Graindorge uses strings, harmonium and electronic treatments to explore intimate corners and widescreen vistas.

Although she’s best-known for her collaborations - with a range of artists from Nick Cave to Mark Lanegan, as well as her work as part of Nile on waX, and for the music she’s written for film and theatre - Graindorge had been intending a second solo release for years. But Eldorado had a much longer gestation period than she expected. That period paid dividends. The music, she says, became “like a diary,” and each page brings new reflections and resonances. She worked with producer John Parish (PJ Harvey, Rokia Traor ), who played various instruments on the album, including the guitar on the homage “Eno.” Graindorge had sent him her first album, and they built a friendship that led to her recording most of this disc at his studio. Artistically, it was a perfect match. “I loved working with him,” she explains. “Not only is he an excellent musician but I love his relationship with sound and music: he is curious, always looking for sounds, there is a rough and direct side to his approach to music that I liked. I wanted this new album to be more radical, a hybrid and raw like our thoughts and emotions, perhaps less ‘smooth’ than the first one so it corresponded more to what I feel today.”