Working with the likes of Myrkur, Emma Ruth Rundle and Wardruna, London-based cellist Jo Quail has become a key contributor to the world of modern heavy music. Collaborations aside, she’s also a formidable composer in her own right, as demonstrated by this latest work, originally commissioned for the 2020 edition of Roadburn, and finally premiered at this year’s festival. Divided into five movements, The Cartographer presents as an example of contemporary classical music, albeit a version imbued with a darkness that will resonate with admirers of Swans, Amenra or Neurosis. Jo’s elegantly brooding cello is almost unaccompanied for much of the first movement, sound effects and minimalist percussion flickering at the periphery, but as the whole work develops, more ins...