Released November 7, 2025.
Now available on Bandcamp
CD + DL – tracks
Track listing:
1. Turadh 19:14
2. 57.0908° N, 3.6939° W 02:34
3. Rionnag a Tuath 06:28
4. 56.9500° N, 3.2667° W 02:42
5. Gleann Ciùin 18:59
“Gleann Ciùin is the second album in a trilogy that explores two narratives: my journeys across the vast landscapes and weathered peaks of the Cairngorms in Aberdeenshire, and my exploration of the rich, resonant tones of pipe organs, contemplating the weight of history and the timeless beauty of these majestic instruments.” Claire M Singer
Organ, cello and electronics performed by Claire M Singer.
Special thanks to Robert Ames, Hugh Brunt, Angus Farquhar, David Flemming, Christine Furnish, Matthew Hynes, Iain Mac a’Phearsain, William McVicker, Zoë Miller, Meg Monteith, David Robertson, Donald Shaw, Andrew Stevenson, Richard Thomas, Ash Todd and Roger Williams.
The recording of this album is generously supported by Arts Council England and PRS Foundation’s Composers’ Fund in partnership with Jerwood Arts.
Published by Touch Music/Fairwood Music (UK) Ltd.
All tracks written, mixed and produced by Claire M Singer
Additional mixing by Fiona Cruickshank
Mastered by Denis Blackham
Art Direction and photography by Jon Wozencroft
Additional photography by Ash Todd
Reviews:
MOJO (UK):
The Guardian (UK):
dasfilter (Germany)
You can read a review by Thaddeus Herrmann here
The Skinny (UK):
On 7 November, Claire M Singer (Music Director of the organ at London’s Union Chapel) releases the second instalment of her triptych inspired by both her journeys in the Cairngorms and experimentation with the pipe organ. On her latest body of work – Gleann Ciuín, meaning ‘Quiet Glen’ in Gaelic – its five tracks and approximate 50-minute runtime is bookended by two 19-minute pieces; opener Turadh takes its name for the Gaelic word for ‘a break in the clouds’, while the Ivor Novello-nominated title track closes the album. Several organs recorded across Scotland appear on Turadh, while Gleann Ciuín’s composition beautifully pairs viola, violin, cello and French horns with the Southbank Centre’s 1967 Flentrop organ. The album’s filling features two shorter, rumbling electronic pieces that flank the centrepiece, the bright and optimistic Rionnag a Tuath (‘north star’). A fascinating listen from start to finish, as evocative, atmospheric and as grand as you’d expect from a record rooted in a journey through the Scottish Highlands, but it’s the sounds Singer creates from the myriad organs featured that truly mesmerise.
Songlines (UK):
Boomkat: Microcorps Best of 2025
Following 2023’s impressive ‘Saor’, award-winning composer Claire M Singer maps out the Cairngorms once more with dramatic longform organ distortions and lush cello drones. Like Kali Malone jamming with Sigur Ros, if that makes sense. Singer’s third Touch album is the second in her proposed trilogy that approaches two themes in parallel, her exploration of Aberdeenshire’s imposing Cairngorms and her growing interest in pipe organs. She’s been working with the instrument for over a decade and an interest has turned into an obsession; the organ director at London’s Union Chapel, Singer also organizes the Organ Reframed festival and has tasked herself with subverting as well as embracing its sound, not just engaging in reverence and nostalgia but challenging the way it’s so often used. On ‘Gleann Ciùin’ she bookends a sequence of short studies with two side-long epics that imagine the organ as the lead player in a drawn-out post-rock style ambient symphony. This isn’t yer usual quiet-loud dynamic, though – Singer is keen to map out the craggy landscape with texture, not bombast, wrinkling her monolithic organ tones with distortion, saturation and feedback. Opening slab ‘Turadh’ is a sparkling mass of frosted fog at first, sculpted from echoed traces before it flips in the middle section. Ruptured by distorted, guitar-like tones, the piece never loses its core sense of wonder, an aspect that’s enhanced in the final act with rousing bass tones and cinematic cello curlicues. And after a couple of subterranean interludes and the gorgeous ‘Rionnag a Tuath’, a shorter track that revisits the core melodic theme, Singer finishes the album with the title composition, a 20-minute blast of high drama that oozes from Sunn O)))-style minimalism towards a Sunday service, highlighting the organ’s versatility and range.
theartsdesk.com (UK):
…That open field that lies beyond the tune has fuelled the heavy drone architecture of Lankum’s music – their recent single release of The Specials’ “Ghost Town” is a striking, extended account of a great 20th century urban folk song. And a cross between the lightness of Spafford Campbell and Lankum’s heavy drones features on organist Claire M Singer’s intoxicating evocation of landscape on Gleann Ciùin. Its epic 19-minute opener “Turadh” (Break in the Clouds) was played on organs recorded at Haddo House in Aberdeenshire. The closing “Gleann Ciùin” eases out of a single bass tone, conjuring sympathetic registers, pulses and tones across a constantly shifting soundscape. It’s a deep-seeking aural balm for the conflicted, turbulent times we are in… [Tim Cumming]