Look how brightly offers a portrait of Alex Mills’ music from the past decade: ten works, many closely linked to moments of change, loss, ritual and renewal, together telling what feels like an intimate, personal story – almost, as Nico Muhly writes in the booklet, a sequence of musical diary entries. Across pieces for strings, voice, piano, percussion and tape, including three specially written for contralto Jess Dandy, familiar materials are quietly transformed: patterns fracture and reform, stasis gives way to movement, and moments of unguarded lyricism emerge unexpectedly. Those encountering Mills for the first time will find a compelling introduction to a composer whose music asks not for interpretation, but for attentive, inward listening – music that is ‘not meditative, but a meditation’.