Laura Cannell - BATTALIA (2026)

BATTALIA’ (from the late 16th century word meaning in preparation for battle), is the new solo album from the UK based Composer, Performer and Improviser Laura Cannell. 


Whether Cannell’s BATTALIA is referring to a personal, cultural or political battle is as yet undecided, but the music within her new album comes from a place of brittle strength where medieval minimalism meets the modern world. Cannell leads the listener through landscapes of raw edged beauty and dissonant chords growing into a powerful chamber music for one.



The music on BATTALIA is offered as an antidote to the uncertain: it is neither early music nor avant garde. It holds it’s own space, but the name for that space does not yet exist. So for now, the listener is invited into ancient sonic environments which hold both the past and the present.

The 9 tracks offered here by Cannell pull at threads from baroque and medieval tonalities. There are shimmering strings over minimalist melodies and repeated calls searching for responses. Inspiration also comes from long obsession with The Cantigas de Santa Maria, an epic 420 medieval song collection from the court of Alfonso X of Castile created in the mid to late 13th century.

Recorded in single takes and brought back to Cannell’s home studio, she plays Overbowed Violin, Octave Violin and Recorders. Laura’s sound taps into inherently ancient timbres which are elevated by recording on location in two very different spaces, a 14th century Village Church at the edge of The Broads National Park and an 18th century John Soane designed Music Room both of which are hidden on rural country estates on the Norfolk/Suffolk borderlands.

The buildings are faceless collaborators whose presence is made of carved stone and plaster, battered oak pews and chiseled ornamentation. During improvisation, the buildings act as graphic scores, Laura places the microphones at least ten metres away from her playing enabling her to move and play with freedom; to respond to the space and to enter a world where she can forget that she is being recorded and perform live in the moment.

BATTALIA is about how the past is continuously echoing around us, the effects of decisions both personal and political have far reaching and tangled consequences. Yet some things remain the same, we get up everyday and continue to try and make sense of others and the world around us.

“I am improvising in solitude, but with so many harmonic worlds in my head I never feel alone. I just feel the urge to play and let this landscape unfold.”


Laura Cannell Biography
Laura Cannell is a composer and musician whose sound straddles the worlds of contemporary and ancient music. Her music draws on the emotional influences of the landscape whilst exploring the spaces between early and experimental music. She was a contributing composer/performer on the soundtrack of the feature film Harvest which premiered at Venice Biennale, New York and London International Film Festivals, and was co-composer on ‘The Woman in Black’ for Audible. Her music has been used for film and television, and on the catwalks at both the Paris and London Fashion Weeks. She appears regularly on the BBC and tours nationally and internationally. www.lauracannell.com | Brawl Records | Instagram

Laura has toured throughout the UK & Europe, is regularly broadcast on the BBC and has appeared on around 70 recordings. Performances include Deep Minimalism at Queen Elizabeth Hall, solo at King’s Place, touring & recording with cellist Lori Goldston (Nirvana, Earth), These Feral Lands Album (with writer/comedian Stewart Lee) and solo at The Barbican. Commissions have included: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Historic Royal Palaces sound installations both solo and with Mira Calix. She is regularly broadcast on the BBC, including live in concert and making playlists for Late Junction Mixtape, BBC 6Music and the World Service. She has also recorded a Maida Vale Session with harpist Rhodri Davies.

She appeared on the BBC Radio 4 Documentary Life, Death and The Foghorn with Jennifer Lucy Allan, and curated and toured her Modern Ritual Series throughout the UK 2017 - 2018. She has been featured in The Irish Times with Kate Ellis, The FT, The Guardian, The Quietus, and The Wire Magazine, Songlines and more. Other highlights include performing at Flow Festival - Helsinki, Fano Free Folk Festival - Denmark, Le Guess Who? Holland, Unsound in Poland and many others.