Polly Jean Harvey is one of the all-time greats, and she can do whatever she wants. She can make an album of her own, or she can release a truly weird one-off single like " Voyager ," the recent track where she sang from the perspective of the Voyager 6 probe. She can collaborate, too. Harvey's most recent LP I Inside The Old Year Dying came out in 2023, and she doesn't seem to be in any hurry to make a new one. Instead, she sings on new records from a couple of experimental composers.

Today, the Iranian-born, Stockholm-based composer Shida Shahabi announced a new album called First Light At Hand . The lead single is an elemental drone track called "Wreath" that goes on for six and a half minutes. Harvey co-wrote the song with Shababi. She sings on it, and she sounds cool as hell. Harvey is apparently a longtime fan of Shahabi. A couple of years ago, Harvey curated the Gunnersbury Park Festival and got Shahabi to play it. They met there, and they have been friends ever since.…