Alison Cotton is a viola player / vocalist based in London. As well as her solo work, she is one half of the Walthamstow based band The Left Outsides.
Her most recent album of 2020, Only Darkness Now, released on Bloxham Tapes and Cardinal Fuzz (UK) and Feeding Tube Records (USA) won critical acclaim, receiving 5 star reviews and reaching number 11 in The Quietus Albums of the Year, number 1 in the Quietus’ New Weird Britain chart, as well as being mentioned in Stewart Lee’s Cultural Year. It received regular plays on both BBC Radio 3 and 6 Music.
Her debut ’All Is Quiet at the Ancient Theatre’ was released in 2018 and in the same year, she was commissioned by the BBC to compose and record a soundtrack to accompany the Muriel Spark ghost story, ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’ which was broadcast on Gideon Coe’s BBC6 Music show at Christmas. This track, along with another soundtrack, was released as an EP by Clay Pipe Music in October 2019.
Both of her LPs, All is Quiet at the Ancient Theatre and Only Darkness Now were re-released on Friendly Recordings in 2021.
In 2021 she was commissioned by The Quietus to write a single long form track as part of their SINGULARITY series in collaboration with The state51 Conspiracy: ‘What You Told Me On That Journey In The Horse & Carriage’ was released in 2022.
She spent almost the last 2 decades performing in bands and collaborating with other musicians. As well as the viola, she uses an array of other instruments (her voice, harmonium, percussion, recorder, omnichord, shruti, piano etc) to create long, haunting folk drones.
