Virginia Astley – Hope in a Darkened Heart

The followup to her 1983 pastoral folk classic From Gardens Where We Feel Secure, Hope in a Darkened Heart is the nostalgic winter counterpart to Virginia Astley’s summertime countryside debut. Produced by Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Ryuichi Sakamoto, the album is much more electronic than From Gardens, but still retains that sort of ethereal, dream-like feeling through spacious cathedral-like reverb, gorgeous choral and orchestral accompaniment, and Astley’s own choir-boy-like vocals. One RateYourMusic reviewer described the album as “what it would sound like if the ghost of a drowned Elizabethan child decided to possess a bunch of synthesizers.” We’re keen to agree with that assessment. Sakamoto’s involvement made this one a hit in Japan, and, unsurprisingly, Japan retains the largest following of Astley outside of the UK. Astley would go on to release two more albums in the ’90s on her own Happy Valley Records through Nippon Columbia.

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