James Vella, here working as the multitasking lone personnel of A Lily, is also known for his work as guitarist/composer for the British post‑classical/indie band yndi halda and as the owner of the O Rosa Records label.

As A Lily, his output has ranged from the sweet, organic laptop‑based solo material of debut album wake:sleep (2006) to the melancholic, longing Americana of limited‑release EP I Dress My Ankles With God’s Sweetest Words (2008) to the skyscraping, all‑encompassing forthcoming album Thunder Ate The Iron Tree (2011). All are characterised by Vella’s distinctive compositional voice and broad palette of instrumentation, yet all occupy a different musical space. The new album — ostensibly a pure pop record that embraces trad jazz, pure noise, modern classicism, woozy electronica, bouncing calypso, rhythm‑heavy afrobeat and beyond – is a flickering, dizzying, elating and highly complementary addition to a quickly growing personal canon.

A Lily as a recorded project is almost entirely the work of Vella alone, with guest musicians donating brass, string and woodwind embellishments. Live, a seven‑piece band (also featuring yndi halda drummer Oliver Newton and collaborators Alastair Reid, Dalia Nakutyte, Rebecca Davies and Alexander Thomas) share a wealth of instruments and rearrange solo material into something very different.

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