Dwelling, as I tend to do, in the relative safety and obscurity of niche genres provides a comfort blanket and the reassurance that comes with familiarity. But it also means that I’m not exposed to anything that I’m not, on some level, acquainted with. So it’s a rare that a record that’s so far out my comfort zone that it could have been fashioned in another galaxy arrives for review, yet that’s exactly what happened when Exsolve turned up out of the blue. The sophomore release by cellist Jo Quail, Exsolve, not only forced me to abandon my preconceptions, it also challenged me to listen without prejudice and somewhere between its second and third act, I lost myself in the sheer beauty and raw emotion that Quail’s music, which constructs a wayward bridge that loosely connects progressive rock and classical music, is built upon and flows around. Exsolve isn’t so much a record that you listen to, as it is one that you experience, with each note passes through and engulfing you in wave after wave of unadulterated pleasure. And it is, quite simply, extraordinary… Tim Cundle