Elliot Galvin - The Ruin

2025
Mini LP-Replica Sleeve, Booklet & Obi Strip

This album is the most personal I’ve made to date. Named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon poem from the 9th century AD about the former glory of an unnamed ruined city, “The Ruin” is inspired by the feeling of living in England (“a country that feels like a living ruin”), the bleak landscape of where I grew up (Medway towns), and a kind of self-portrait reflecting how we all live amongst the ruins of our past selves both collectively and individually. All the musical material on “The Ruin” is taken from iPhone recordings of improvisations that I played on my first-ever piano – bought using money left by my late grandfather. The whole album is structured cyclically so that it gradually builds up and crumbles away, starting and finishing with solo piano. To this end, the very beginning of the album starts with a reversed iPhone recording of me improvising a melody on this piano and ends with this same recording playing forwards."

"The musicians who recorded this music with me have all had a big impact on my voice over the years, featuring Ruth Goller on bass and voice, Sebastian Rochford on Drums, the Ligeti String Quartet, who I have been working with since the very first album I was on.

It is the start of a new chapter musically and one that feels the truest to my musical voice that I’ve ever made."

Personnel:
Elliot Galvin – Piano, Synthesizers and Electronics
All Tracks
Ruth Goller – Bass and Voice
Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 10
Sebastian Rochford – Drums
Tracks 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8
Ligeti Quartet
Freya Goldmark – Violin I
Patrick Dawkins – Violin II
Richard Jones – Viola
Val Welbanks – Cello
Tracks 3, 4, 5, 7, 9
Shabaka Hutchings – Bamboo Flute
Track 4, Shakuhachi Track 6