Alison Cotton is a viola player / vocalist based in London, working with composition and improvisation. She is also one half of the band The Left Outsides.
Her forthcoming album, The Portrait You Painted of Me will be released on Rocket Recordings / Feeding Tube Records in June.
Her 2020 album, Only Darkness Now won critical acclaim and reached number 11 in The Quietus Albums of the Year, number 1 in their New Weird Britain chart and was in Stewart Lee’s Cultural Year.
Her debut album ’All Is Quiet at the Ancient Theatre’ was released in 2018 and in the same year, she was commissioned by the BBC to compose a soundtrack for the Muriel Spark ghost story, ‘The Girl I Left Behind Me’ which was broadcast on 6 Music. This was released as an EP by Clay Pipe Music in October 2019.
In 2021, she was commissioned by The Quietus to compose a 20 minute piece, What You Told Me On That Journey in the Horse & Carriage which was released by State 51 in 2022.
She receives regular plays on BBC Radio 3 and 6 Music. She recently was invited by Radio 3’s Late Junction to perform a collaborative session and by Radio 3’s New Music Show to play a live set recorded for the show.
