Freya Waley-Cohen​’s debut album Spell Book is available from 25 October 2024 on NMC Records. It features Manchester Collective alongside Héloïse Werner (soprano), Katie Bray (mezzo-soprano), Fleur Barron (mezzo-soprano), Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin), Anne Beilby (viola), and Nathaniel Boyd (cello).

The centrepiece of the album is the dramatic song cycle Spell Book, written in stages and first performed in full by Manchester Collective earlier this year. Acclaimed as ​“a remarkable achievement from a composer to watch” (Richard Morrison, The Times), the song cycle sets eight ​‘spells’ by Scottish poet Rebecca Tamás.

The disc also features a selection of other works on the theme of magic and legend: Talisman (2020) for string ensemble; the string trio Conjure (2019); and Naiad (2019) for octet, written in memory of Waley-Cohen’s mentor Oliver Knussen. Describing her vision for the album, Waley-Cohen says: ​“I picture coming across a beautiful old box and opening it to find a different sort of collection, one of otherworldly happenings: of spirits, conjurings, magical objects, and a book of spells.”