“Staggeringly beautiful”

Folk Radio UK

“She’s one of a range of superlative instrumental artists in England

- Colley’s soundscapes are standouts among them all.” ★★★★

Songlines

“Oozing with lyrical beauty”

Arts Desk ★★★★

Ruby is a violinist, sound artist, and composer who blends instrumentation found sound and electronics. Her work treads the space between nature, classical and folk music, creating instrumental soundscapes that are far beyond the realm of traditional playing, charged with emotional power and nuance.

Her commission, Edgeland- is an audio/visual work. Taken from the environmentalist Marion Shoard who coined the term defined as the interfacial interzone between urban and rural, that explores the people (including Ruby’s neurodivergent brother) & places within an Edgeland near her home.

Her debut album ‘Murmurations’ was released in 2010 & released the EP ‘Sussex Sessions’ with Isobel Anderson in 2014.

Her latest album Overheard was released in April 2022 and was the culmination of two years creative development, supported by the Arts Council England. The album seeks to unravel the connections between human presence & nature in response to the climate crisis. The album was voted Songlines Essential 10 Classical crossover albums. ★★★★

A further EP: Underheard was released in February 2023 bringing together strings, field recordings and synths, Ruby uses each to form narrative and memory. The details of interactions big and small, such as her daughters encounter with a trapped bee, Curlews being disturbed by a riverboat, or the vulnerability of flora in turbulent wind, are a record of things that otherwise would be left behind.

Ruby’s work has recieved extensive radio play on BBC Radio 3 - Sunday Morning, In Tunes, Night Tracks & Freeness.

For more on Ruby’s work, you can watch here (3 mins): Ruby Colley - Snape Maltings

Ruby has written for Film & even directed her own music videos (The Sea Wrote It, ‘21). She’s collaborated with Theatre and Dance, and played with acts such as Sam Lee, Owen Pallette, Sinead O’Connor, The Unthanks, Cosmo Sheldrake, Zoe Keating and the late John Martyn. She was artist in residence for the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival, Belfast, (2008) and also performed the Acoustic Stage at Glastonbury (2011) with the esteemed Isobel Anderson. Her film collaboration with Dance United was accepted into the Fastnet Film Festival and Encounters Film Festival. Ruby’s track The Wait, used for the film “We all have a tree in us” by Turner nominated Project Artworks. It was scheduled to be shown at the British Film Institute (BFI) on 21 April 2020.