Until the Hunter

Until the Hunter arrives with patience and quiet confidence. Released on 4 November 2016, it marked Hope Sandoval and Colm Ó Cíosóig’s first album together since 2009 and their first collaboration following the return of Mazzy Star and My Bloody Valentine in 2013. Rather than feeling tentative, the record sounds deeply settled, as if shaped by years of listening, reflection and trust in atmosphere over momentum.

Work began in 2014 in Berkeley before shifting to Dublin, where the album took on its distinctive sense of space. Recorded across an array of unconventional locations, including Martello towers on the Irish coast, Until the Hunter breathes naturally. The circular acoustics of these spaces allow the music to unfold with a gentle decay, lending the album a hushed, immersive quality that feels almost physical.

Sandoval’s voice remains the gravitational centre. Soft, unhurried and resolutely inward, it drifts through the album like a constant presence rather than a focal point demanding attention. The arrangements gather around it with restraint and care. Contributions from Dirt Blue Gene deepen the album’s organic feel, while guests such as Kurt Vile, Mariee Sioux and Michael Masley add texture without breaking the spell. Masley’s unusual instrumentation, including gong and nyckelharpa, brings a subtle otherworldliness that feels perfectly attuned to the record’s mood.

The nine-minute opener “Into the Trees” sets the tone, unfolding slowly from organ drone into something expansive and hypnotic. Elsewhere, the album moves fluidly between styles without ever sounding eclectic. Songs echo Sandoval’s earlier work while extending it into new emotional territory. “Let Me Get There”, a long-form duet with Kurt Vile, simmers with soul-inflected warmth, while “The Peasant” and “Treasure” tap into a familiar ache, rendered with renewed clarity.

Critics responded warmly to the album’s atmosphere and emotional economy, praising its production and Sandoval’s ability to convey depth with the lightest of touches. Until the Hunter does not seek resolution or drama. Instead, it invites the listener to linger, to sit within its shadows and subtle shifts, and to find meaning in restraint.

It is an album that rewards patience and attention, offering beauty not through grand statements, but through texture, tone and the quiet confidence of artists fully at ease with their own language.