Laura Misch – Kairos
Laura Misch’s second album Lithic arrives June 5 via One Little Independent, and its title tells you where it’s headed: stone, geology, slow time. “Kairos” — an Ancient Greek word for non-sequential, unhurried time — is the third preview, following lead single “Echoes” which we covered when the album was announced, and it arrives as a double release alongside “Scrolls”.
Both tracks were recorded across two very different locations: a disused slate quarry in Cornwall and the Greek island of Hydra on the Aegean. The key instrument threading through the sessions is the Musical Stones of Skiddaw, a 180-year-old lithophone — an instrument built from naturally resonant slabs of stone. Misch weaves that alongside her sax improvisations and field recordings of wind, rain and sea. The concept is serious: sound as geological material, shaped by time and erosion the way rock is. Where her debut operated in a more ambient, atmospheric register, Lithic pushes the conceptual framework further, drawing on the thinking of Barbara Hepworth and composer Pauline Oliveros’s practice of deep listening.
“Kairos” captures the album’s core theme directly: how the world is shaped slowly, over time, in ways we can’t fully track in the moment. What caught my ear is how the production resists the obvious move — there’s no swell, no release, no payoff in the traditional sense. It just holds its ground, which is entirely the point.
Tracklist:
- Breathing
- Kairos
- Echoes
- Siren
- Scrolls
- Soften
- Circle
- Fo(r)est
- Jealousea
- Mythic
- Shell
- Spiral
Tour Dates Europe:
- July 3, 2026 — London, UK — Barbican Centre
