Reclusive cinematic electronica maestros Valley Forge release their new single Burning In My Soul on Clan Analogue, the follow-up to last year’s enigmatic “Alright” release.
“Burning In My Soul” embodies the Valley Forge sound – lush, genre-blended soundscapes that bubble and seethe with pulsating layers of electronics with unrelenting drums and percussion, now inflected with the influences of classic 60s soul music. The lead track features the ethereal voice of Pru Clearwater, whose plaintive siren-like vocals add a spiritual and wraithlike vibe to the glistening Valley Forge sonic aesthetic, providing a life-affirming answer to the existential dread heard previously in Kamahl’s voice on his “Wayfaring Stranger” Valley Forge collaboration.
Valley Forge frontman Freeman Lowell says of this release, “Burning has been gestating over a good number of years – back to the days of the old Antares Harmony Generator which we used on the vocals. It’s been a regular inclusion in the VF live set so it’s great to finally get an official release. To me it evokes the old songs of the Louisiana Bayou, there’s just something swampy and verdant about it… a little bit ghostly, a little bit spacey… a crossover between tranquility and intensity.”
The single’s “flipside” track, “The Elephant’s Foot” is an instrumental elegy inspired by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, filled with sombre and sinuous bass, melancholic pads, flickering sequences and insistent Geiger counter percussion. The title refers to the radioactive mass of corium discovered eight months after the meltdown which became a modern day Medusa – lethal to anyone who viewed it without the aid of a protective suit. Today Chernobyl remains a pawn in geopolitical struggles and a warning of the darker side of humanity.
Says Freeman Lowell: “The Elephant’s Foot” needed to capture multiple concepts: impenetrable blackness, danger, stark post-nuclear landscapes, pride and loss – and I wanted to install a sense that at the song’s “core”, for want of a better word, there’s a vast and powerful energy source that is simply hiding – crouched and waiting, while it gradually weakens over the centuries.”
Valley Forge’s previous guest collaborators have included artists as diverse as Kamahl, Single Gun Theory and Tom Ellard. On this release the enigmatic and soulful vocals of globetrotting new age singer Pru Clearwater lift the song into the aether while the groove keeps on burning.
Look out for the forthcoming new album from Valley Forge, coming soon from Clan Analogue. In the meantime enjoy Burning In My Soul with its double A-side track “The Elephant’s Foot”.
Track Listing:
1. Burning In My Soul
2. The Elephant’s Foot
Released June 2025.