Ali Murray - Spiritual Drift

Ali Murray - Spiritual Drift

(Dead Forest Records, 2025)

---

Hi everyone. Today is the release day of my new album 'Spiritual Drift'. This is the final album that I intend to release under my own name...  

Even though no one looks at this blog, I just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone who has supported my work over the last 15 years. I really appreciate it.  And please do check out my back catalogue of work. I'll still be using the Bandcamp platform, so it's best to follow me on there. I'll keep this blog here too, so if I have any future announcements - I can post about them here... 

I'll be deleting my Ali Murray social media accounts soon.

Thank you and take care, 

Ali.

---

'Spiritual Drift' marks the final album Ali Murray intends to put out under his own name. It closes the chapter on a decade-and-a-half of DIY output that began in 2010 and carried him through a quietly consistent run of albums and EPs. The album serves as a series of swan songs for an emotional epoch.  

It's a personal reckoning revealed through the exploration of intersections between shoegaze, ambient psych folk, darkwave electronica and acoustic dreampop, leaning into the darker corners of lyrical storytelling.  Introspectively shrouded in isolation, and washed in texture, the atmosphere of the album mirrors the cold, windswept isolation of its geographical conception. Spectral weight grounds and transcends through melody as diaphanous relays of confessionalism meet fragile oscillations of reverb.  

Lyrically, 'Spiritual Drift' moves through anxiety, heartbreak, loneliness, and loss, brushing up against themes of cosmic bewilderment, small-town claustrophobia, and a faint sense of the apocalyptic. It stands as a candid meditation for anyone who has surrendered to quiescent stagnation and stared too long at the scars of their inner world as they meet the heartlessness of the horizon.  

Authenticity as a form of integrity has always been a cornerstone of Murray’s sound; that ethos lingers within this anthology of honesty, written without apology or expectation, driven purely by the need to transmit bare, melancholic truth from a cold, wet rock in the middle of nowhere...  

- Amelia Vandergast  

---  

Stream/Buy/Download : 

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/spiritual-drift

Ali Murray - The Summer Laden

(Dead Forest Records, 2025)

---

REVIEW :  

The best-kept secret of the northern reaches of Scotland is Ali Murray, a singer-songwriter who calls the Isle of Lewis home. I’ve written about a couple of Murray’s records over the years, but I’ve really only scratched the surface of the prolific musician – under a variety of projects, he’s made music encompassing the worlds of slowcore, folk (both “traditional” and “indie rock”-focused), dream pop, ambient, shoegaze, fuzz rock, post-punk and more... 'The Summer Laden' has its own detours, but it’s primarily an album fully re-embracing folky, slowcore-inspired indie rock of both the acoustic and electric varieties. Sometimes 'The Summer Laden' is pin-drop quiet, sometimes it’s relatively amped-up, but it pretty much always feels like a delicate, thoughtful thirty-minute journey through the world of a talented and somewhat iconoclastic singer-songwriter.  

The range of Murray is on full, constant display in the album's first half – he begins the record with the title track, a carefully-arranged chamber pop exercise that folds unexpectedly into the fuzzed-out indie rock of “Heaven All the Way” (the record’s loudest song and the one with the most divergent vocal performance from Murray) and then once again veers into a different world, this time via the acoustic folk of “Toby”. The verses of “Heaven All the Way” may feel pretty dark and obscure for Murray, but the singer surfaces for a beautiful shoegaze-pop chorus, and he’s able to unite some of The Summer Laden’s more disparate moments in this way, too, like the mid-record duo of “Don’t Fade on Me” and “July the Spiral”, which jump a little further into the realms of electronic-touched, rhythmic dream pop. 

The one song that rivals “Heaven All the Way” in terms of pure electricity is the album’s penultimate track, “Last to Leave” – this one is based on chugging power chords, typically held in some restraint but every now and then offering up minor explosions to go alongside Murray’s star-reaching vocals (see also the acoustic track “Starlit Beaches”, in which Murray gives so much to the barebones recording that it feels much “fuller” than it is on paper). It’s a good a time as any to get in on this particular secret.  

- Rosy Overdrive

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/the-summer-laden

---

Ali Murray - Highway To The End EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2024)

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/highway-to-the-end

---

Ali Murray - Abduction Songs EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2023)

'Abduction Songs' is a dark and dreamy mixture of ethereal alt-folk, acoustic dream-pop and dark ambient experimentation. Lost signals and broken transmissions, drifting through the ether...

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/abduction-songs

---

Ali Murray & Cornelius Corvidae - Split EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2023)

This EP presents the contrasting styles of two highly original and compulsively listenable artists.  Cornelius Corvidae is in some ways a throwback to a very adventurous time in music when fringe progressive folk acts like Comus and the Incredible String Band took listeners on mystical, dramatic journeys driven by cosmic wordplay and a marvellous intensity of execution. This is the music of a glade soaked in moonlight, like something out of a George Macdonald or Arthur Machen story. On the other end of the spectrum is Ali Murray’s trademark mastery of the art of melancholy, here represented by two delicate tracks that match delicately plucked acoustic guitars and ambient textures worthy of his instrumental project The Lonely Bell. As always, Murray utilizes just enough of a Scottish folk flavour to add a windswept feel, which, when combined with his ethereal, yearning vocals, never fails to make sorrow sound sweet.  Two distinct artists, four wonderful songs.  

- Allister Thompson 

---

''...a delightfully haunted EP of two criminally unrecognised singer-songwriters doing what they do best. Great stuff.'' 

- Fog Songs  

''...an excellent split EP'' 

- Heresiarch Music Reviews  

---  

Monolith Cocktail review :  

''As the name suggests this is an EP split between two artists playing two songs each...  Cornelius Corvidae - Two songs of cosmic Americana. ‘Silver Flower (Kali’s Invitation)’ employs acoustic picked guitar on a bleak ballad, all dark imagery and campfire ghost-story shadow. ‘Shiva in the Blood Orchard’ meanwhile, uses picked acoustic guitar set against Tudor-like keyboard melodies (reminiscent of the Moody Blues) on a dark folk ballad.  

Ali Murray - On some of his other releases he harnesses a shoegaze-like sonic template. Here he adopts a stripped-back sound of acoustic and electric guitar and organ. Standout track is the beautiful ‘Wish the Bones Away’ with its poetic lyrics and melancholic gothic strangeness. ‘Spirit of Unknowing’ meanwhile, uses acoustic guitar to great effect on an atmospheric ballad that combines the phrasing of John Grant with the sadness of Elliot Smith. Two songs of beauty and wonder. Two artists, four great songs!''  

---

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/split-ep

---

Ali Murray - Tourniquet EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2022)

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/tourniquet-2

---

Ali Murray - Spectral Birds

(Dead Forest Records, 2022)

Dedicated to the memory of Hank.  

These songs make no empty promises, they alternately whisper and ring out in the vastness with the force of authentic yearning. At once spacious and intimate, this is music that finds me when I am lost… wistful, dreamy, haunting, melancholic, introspective and not sure quite how to say it - elemental? The songs have weather and ocean, they also have roots in the ground - geologic geographic ancestral emotional terrain all being reckoned with... clear and heartfelt articulations from within the fog of doubt, resonant with tenderness, soulful, humane, beautiful... Ali Murray’s voice knows loss, and is all the more comforting for it.

- Katie Griesar

---

''Anyone who's already familiar with Murray's immense body of work should be well-acquainted with his signature amalgamation of sorrowful alt-folk, ethereal ambient dreamscapes and existentialist pop. It seems like he's on a constant pursuit to unveil the sad truths of this world. 'Spectral Birds' is a lonely grey dream, a melancholy journey into the unknown, and a wonderful winter treat of an album'' 

- Fog Songs  

''Deeply conceived and painstakingly thought-out...it's the perfect Winter album – desolate and haunted but also comforting and mysterious.'' 

- Heresiarch Reviews  

''Great work'' - Space Is The Place

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/spectral-birds

---

Ali Murray - Passing Through The Void EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2022)

Once again, Ali Murray cements his deserved status as the King of Moorland Melancholy with these three tracks. They show almost the full range of styles at his disposal, from the Disintegration-era Cure-like chime of the guitars on the opening track, to a lushly produced, heartfelt folk ballad in "Boy," to the closer, which features elements of noise and ambient in the stew of atmospheric sounds. 

Close listens reveal many poetic insights in Murray's sincere, confessional lyrics as well. Yet another fine release by a major talent.

---

''Murray's breathy tenor drifts sadly and sweetly against an ethereal backdrop of sprawling dark noise, melancholic ambience and classical instrumentation that ebbs and flows within these beautiful reverb-laden dreamscapes. An incredible EP that's over far too quickly from one of the best undiscovered songwriters out there...'' 

- Fog Songs  

''The loneliness, the isolation of mind...Three songs! Howls in the dark! Cries to the abyss!'' 

- Monolith Cocktail  

''A demonstration of Murray’s ability to layer sounds without losing the gentle beauty that marks the best of his music.'' 

- Rosy Overdrive

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/passing-through-the-void

---

Ali Murray - Wilderness of Life

(Dead Forest Records, 2022)

From a rocky island covered in moorland on the edge of the North Atlantic comes an album that shows the maturation of a major talent. 'Wilderness of Life' is a collection of reflective songs that incorporates the influences of many kinds of music, from dream pop to goth to post-punk to folk, with frequent nods to the lilting traditional Celtic music of Murray's homeland, Scotland. Veering between darkly moody dirges to sweeping, almost uplifting melodic pop, this is an album of uncompromising emotional intensity.  Haunting, sometimes bleak imagery is employed in the service of describing the thoughts of a troubled soul, of loss, longing and the desperate desire for a meaningful life. No singer-songwriter of today navigates the landscape of isolation with as much poignancy as Ali Murray. 

- Allister Thompson

---

''This album is a dark lonely introspective journey through ambiguous dreamscapes. Murray constantly manages to tap into something deep, dark and uncomfortable... but somehow turns it all into wonderful dreamy pop music. The atmospheres and soundscapes within the album are exactly how I imagine the Isle of Lewis to be - cold, barren and beautiful... '' 

- Fog Songs  

''The songs are full of imagery, nature reimagined as pain, the loneliness of the Cosmos painted in sound on a skyscraper guitar...dark hymns to loneliness, heartbreak, and emotional turmoil, with enduring hope in the face of adversity.'' 

- Monolith Cocktail  

''A gentle chaotic listen...a portrait of an intriguing under-the-radar songwriter'' 

- Rosy Overdrive''

It's like it was recorded under a heavy overcast and the overbearing density of the atmosphere somehow fused with the tape. It's a facet of the production that lends the songs a semblance of pondering melancholy that interacts encouragingly with the lyrics. The vast majority of which hover in tense suspension over the sheer drop of a rocky shore- searching the horizon for clarity with one foot over the ledge of a cliff and the other chained to the hope of this world.'' 

- I Thought I Heard A Sound

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/wilderness-of-life

---

Roddy Huggan - Sustain EP (ft. Ali Murray)

(self-released, 2012)

All tracks written by Roddy Huggan. 

Music by Roddy Huggan. Vocals by Ali Murray.

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://roddyhuggan.bandcamp.com/album/sustain

---

Ali Murray - Land of Evergone

(Dead Forest Records, 2017)

''Dark atmospheric folk music with lush sweeping dreamy soundscapes and Celtic-twinged instrumentation. 'Land of Evergone' strikes a balance that is intimate and soaring, peaceful and haunting, sad and quietly joyful, delicately reverberating with Murray's dreamy voice and guitar playing'' 

- The Sirens Sound

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/land-of-evergone

---

Ali Murray - Only Wind EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2017)

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/only-wind

---

Ali Murray - Softening of the Light

(Dead Forest Records, 2016)

An old song that was abandoned and lost in time. Recently rediscovered and brought back to life.

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/softening-of-the-light

---

Ali Murray - Dead Forests

(Dead Forest Records, 2015)

''spectral, misty bedroom folk...a darker, even more atmospheric release, trading heavily on bleak sonic landscapes and lonely sentiments...'' - The Modern Folk

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/dead-forests

---

Ali Murray - Further Still

 

(Dead Forest Records, 2013)

This album is dedicated to the memory of Ted.  

Read an amazing full-length album review of 'Further Still' written by Allister Thompson for Make Your Own Taste :

https://makeyourowntaste.com/2014/08/31/ali-murray-further-still-2014-ethereal-folk-from-the-edge-of-the-world/

---

''Enter the sad and beautiful world of Ali Murray. This is raw dark minimalist psych-folk, to a subtle backdrop of ethereal ambient soundscapes and pastoral field recordings, with Murray's breathy vocals sitting nicely in the dreamy soundscape. In between these beautiful poignant songs of loss, regret and existential sadness - you can hear distant ocean waves, lonely winds, raindrops falling and birds singing. Everything seems to be shrouded in a quiet ghostly mist. This is comfort music for lost lonely souls.'' 

- Fog Songs

''Ethereal folk from the edge of the world'' 

- Allister Thompson, Make Your Own Taste  

''A study in whispers and atmospheres. each song begins and ends with what feels like the sound of mist and lonely seaside breezes, and then the delicate guitar, breathy layers of voices, and dark lyrics of ali murray, accompanied at times by fluttering mandolin or yawning keyboards, make their way in. recorded on the isle of lewis in northern scotland, the album sounds like i imagine that place to be. dark, misty and lonesome.'' 

- The Modern Folk  

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/further-still

---

Ali Murray - Poems of Emily Brontë EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2013)

Four songs based on the beautifully bleak poetry of the late Emily Brontë.

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/poems-of-emily-bront

---

Ali Murray - Muffled Prayer EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2012)

''...perfect for conjuring up that distinctly Celtic melancholy that manages to be gloriously sad without a hint of fromage.''  

- Allister Thompson, Make Your Own Taste

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/muffled-prayer

---

Ali Murray - Tackle Street EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2012)

Recorded one evening in the summer of 2011, ''Tackle Street'' is a stark, stripped down 3-song EP featuring guest vocalist Roddy Huggan.

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/tackle-street

---

Ali Murray - Sober Moon

(Dead Forest Records, 2011)

The sophomore full-length album from Scottish-Filipino songwriter/musician Ali Murray.

''Ali Murray defies folk-rock logic, while maintaining a characteristic solitude that is both brilliant and dark. The short songs, sweeping guitar hooks, emotive vocals, precise percussion and poetic lyrical radiance make 'Sober Moon' shimmer with creative energies...'' 

- Matthew Forss, Inside World Music

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/sober-moon

---

Ali Murray - Drowse EP

(Dead Forest Records, 2010)

'Drowse' is a 4-song EP from Ali Murray. It is the EP accompaniment to his debut album, 'An Endless Lullaby'.

Stream/Buy/Download :

https://alimurray.bandcamp.com/album/drowse

---