Beginning of the Shadow

Beginning of the Shadow by Anthony Child (aka Surgeon) has a mysterious power, like an incantation or invocation. Gong, voice and synthesis pull on the veil of the unseen world, merging with the ghosts and environmental sounds of Maui, where the album was recorded in early 2026. Anthony says, “Maui is a powerful and special place. I go there to pull myself to pieces, and it always cracks me open.” 

This is a power that emerges when confronting difficult experiences, choices and feelings, from vulnerability, as much as musical mastery, which is also in abundance, of course. 

It’s the first time Anthony has used his voice in such a revealing way on a recording. Soft howls in arcane harmonies open the album, seeming to yearn for something or someone. There are spoken words, too, such as the call – or mantra – to embrace the true self and to live and create in ever more revealing and honest ways. “Go the way your blood beats,” as the James Baldwin quote referenced and included in full on the sleeve, warns. “If you don't live the only life you have, you won't live some other life, you won't live any life at all.”

Beginning of the Shadow reveals a new side of one of the UK’s most remarkable and pioneering artists who’s at the absolute peak of their creativity (so far). 

Collaborators include C. Lavender, who played synthesiser on Snake turned to Stone, and Elizabeth Heilman played gong on Weeping Rita. Coqui frogs and crickets can be heard on many of the tracks, a constant presence on Maui.

Art and design is by Plant43 using a manipulated photograph taken by Anthony Child on Maui, and the album was mastered by quiet details.