Ultraviolet (Kelly Moran album)

I am trying to obfuscate exactly what the piano sounds like. The whole point is to make it sound different.

— Kelly Moran, 2018[1]

Ultraviolet is the first release by Moran on Warp.[2] Moran was inspired by the sounds of nature and tried to reproduce them on the recording.[2] She went to the prepared piano she has used on 2017's Bloodroot and improved with the instrument, adding synthesizer later.[1]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	81/100[3]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[4]
Exclaim!	9/10[5]
PopMatters	9/10[6]
Pitchfork Media	7.6/10[7]
Tiny Mix Tapes	4/5[8]

Ultraviolet was met with positive reviews from critics noted at review aggregator Metacritic. This release received a weighted average score of 81 out of 100, based on 10 reviews.[3] Pitchfork Media's Philip Sherburne gave the album 7.6 out of 10, summing up his review, "The excess is thrilling. It’s here where Moran feels the most unfettered and uninhibited—not just balancing opposing forces, but reveling in their collision and savoring the way the frequencies fly, like raindrops buffeted by gusts of wind."[7] Evan Coral at Tiny Mix Tapes gave the album four out of five, with a review that is itself written in a post-modern style, highlighting Moran's inspiration from John Cage and emphasizing her innovation with a prepared piano.[8] Paul Simpson of AllMusicGuide also referenced her innovation at piano preparation in his review, giving the album 3.5 out of five, saying the work is "far more expressive than one might expect from an album of prepared piano music".[4] Regarding her inspiration to post-minimalism, Spyros Stasis of PopMatters ends his nine out of 10 review writing, "Starting from a minimal perspective, with a solitary piano as the main guide through this journey, she can awaken a pronounced ethereal and light characteristic, but further infuse it with a darker element."[6] Exclaim!'s Tom Beedham also gave it a nine out of 10 and contrasted the album's influences in his assessment: "Ultraviolet is indebted to the charm of the natural world, but with it, Moran unlocks dazzling new ones in the process, keys jammed firmly between the strings of her instrument".[5]

All songs written by Kelly Moran

1. "Autowave" – 3:09
2. "Helix" – 8:48
3. "Water Music" – 6:29
4. "Nereid" – 10:07
5. "In Parallel" – 6:20
6. "Halogen" – 7:15
7. "Radian" – 2:50

• Kelly Moran – piano, songwriting, production

• Dina Chang at Setta Studio – photography
• Katharine Hayden – digital retouching
• Heba Kadry – mastering
• Lafont London – graphic design
• Daniel Lopatin – synthesizer and additional production on "Helix", "Nereid", and "Water Music"
• Gabriel Schuman – engineering
• Tim Saccenti at Setta Studio – photography, creative direction
• Chris Tabron at Red Bull Studios – mixing

• Official website