Sunlight to Blue Blue to Blackness

2008 release, a very bare, back to basics, reflective new album from The Durutti Column (AKA Vini Reilly). In a conscious response to his last two polished and studio-based releases he has created some sparse, simply beautiful ‘sketches’ as he once called them, more reminiscent of his work from the early ’80s. Many of the pieces are simply instrumentals played on his Juan Montero flamenco guitar, and he returns to Without Mercy for the last track ‘Grief’ and reinvents ‘Never Known’ from LC. This release also sees the debut of a talented young pianist and singer, Poppy Morgan, who co-wrote the melancholy ‘Ananda’ as a duet with what Reilly dryly calls ‘intrusive guitar’. For the uninitiated, Vini was the first artist signed to Manchester’s influential Factory Records, co-wrote and played on Morrissey’s first solo album Viva Hate, and was heavily featured in the film about Manchester music culture, ’24 Hour Party People’. Kooky.