Sacred Sounds

Since her 2010 debut album, acclaimed composer and virtuoso cellist Jo Quail has demonstrated that the melancholic-sounding stringed instrument has a place beyond the realm of classical music and spooky movie scores. On her latest album, Notan, she strips her breathtaking and otherworldly sound back to its purest parts, and its orchestral companion is due next year. She tells Prog why less is sometimes more.

- Julian Marszalek

It's a bright, warm and sunny evening where it feels as if the summer will never end, and Jo Quail's disposition is matched entirely by the glorious weather.

She's relaxed, smiling and exuding the kind of positive vibes that should be bottled up and dispensed for free from your local pharmacy; it's impossible not to be swept up in her enthusiasm and joy in creating new music and moving ever forward.

“I'm constantly learning,” says Quail from the kitchen of her Sussex bolt-hole. “I think each time I make an album, it's a snapshot in time of that particular moment. With each release, I have progressed as a composer and as a performer as well, so I learn a lot more. And certainly also in terms of production; I try to improve my skills in that sense, as well as the creative and writing skills.”

She's not wrong. Since releasing her debut album, From The Sea, in 2010, the cellist's extraordinary talent has seen her blending classical, experimental and post-rock influences into an aesthetic that's wholly her own. And by incorporating loops and effects pedals, her work as a sound designer has bolstered her compositions with additional layers of atmospherics and emotions. Moreover, Quail hasn't just continued to release new music that's almost impossible to pigeonhole, she's also grown in stature as an artist of unique standing.

Notan, her seventh album, finds her spreading her wings further to soar on an upward learning curve. It began as a series of improvisations in a friend's back garden and Quail ended up arranging them for a symphony orchestra. These grander pieces will form the basis of her next album, Ianus, which she's set to record this autumn and will see the light of day in 2026. But, as Quail acknowledges, touring with a symphony orchestra is far from realistic.

“That's why I created a solo cello version using just my RC-600 loop station and GT-1000 effects processor,” Quail explains. “