Light Stories
At the age of 16 a deeply traumatic event that put my life in danger was swiftly covered up as I went back to my musical boarding school.
Some 35 years later, during an ayahuasca ceremony in Brazil (amongst others, Sting and Gabor Maté have documented their experiences at this kind of ceremony in some detail), I had a kind of recapitulation that left me terrified, but inspired me to finally seek help to deal with what had happened as a teenager.
Light Stories is an attempt in music to tell that story of trauma and recovery – and how it placed music so deeply in my heart and my life.
Reviews
“Light Stories is a suite for solo cello with discreet electronic accompaniment, of connected pieces drawing inspiration from Barley’s at times harrowing back story. There is an immediacy to the compositions, which are the logical development of the improvisation and arrangement that have been recurrent components of Barley’s programming on disc. Two affecting arrangements of Bach and Sollima are included here, providing intriguing stylistic contrast. The climactic seventh piece opens with a musical assault on the Elgar Cello Concerto in what is arguably the defining moment of the album. There is much to admire in the music that Barley has written himself, from the beguiling, scherzo-like Unravelling (with its uneasy undertow) to the penultimate Full, Empty which provides an element of catharsis…Barley’s performance is as virtuosic and definitive as you would expect.”
Guy Rickards in the Gramophone, December 2024
