Tag Archives: Rachel Newton

Folk: album review – Spell Songs ‘In Thin Air’

Folk music, Album reviews, , , , , , , ,

Originally commissioned by the organisers of the Folk By The Oak festival, the Spell Songs project was initially conceived as a one-off project but are now onto their third album.

Spell Songs brought together seven outstanding musicians and comprises Karine Polwart (tenor guitar/vocals), Julie Fowlis (whistles/vocals), Seckou Keita (kora/percussion/vocals), Kris Drever (guitars/bass/vocals), Rachel Newton (electroharp/viola/vocals), Beth Porter (cello/ukulele/vocals) and Jim Molyneux (piano/keyboards/drums/percussion/vocals).

Following the success of the initial album The Lost Words Spell Songs in 2019 and its follow-up Let The Light In in 2021, In Thin Air is released as a musical companion to the acclaimed work by artist, Jackie Morris, and conservation writer, Robert Macfarlane, whose The Book of Birds was published earlier this year.

As I look onto our communal back-garden here on the south coast with its abundance of blackberries and newly-installed bird bath, I like to pride myself on how many feathered visitors we get in a typical day. Should that lull me into a false sense of security, however, both the book and the album are a timely reminder of the threats to our natural bird population and the 49 bird species it celebrates are all on the RSPB’s Amber or Red List. An enduring presence in folksong, as Polwart reminds us, birds inhabit “our languages and stories, our art and folklore, and our individual and cultural memories.” We lose them at our peril.

Featuring twelve tracks that lean heavily on the seven key themes in the book – nest, egg, beak, song, feather, flight and migration – the album  is a stunning celebration of the life-cycle of the bird. Highlights include the title track which gently opens the album to the sound of birdsong and soft whisperings; ‘Najan (Nest)’ with its African rhythms and reminding us of the truly international flavour of some of our favourite avian visitors; and ‘Flight’ which takes us on a magical journey with its delicate melodies and sumptuous vocals.

An ambitious project that’s beautifully executed, and drawing on a captivating juxtaposition of musical influences, In Thin Air is another triumph for this hugely creative and talented seven-piece.

Released: 4 September 2026 https://www.thelostwords.org/spell-songs/

Folk: album review – Iona Lane ‘Hallival’

Album reviews, Folk music, , , , , ,

While she was born in Lancaster grew up in the Yorkshire Dales and graduated from Leeds Conservatoire, it is the Hebridean island of Rum that provides the inspiration for Iona Lane’s debut album. Rising 723 metres, Hallival, is one of the mountains on the picturesque Isle of Rum, the location of which is also the theme for the album’s opening track.

Iona Lane: “Spending my childhood in the Dales was wonderful but pretty much all our family holidays were north of the border so I’ve grown to love the Scottish as well as the English landscape.”

 As well as highland landscapes, Lane’s songwriting tackles such themes as eighteenth-century scientific discovery, nineteenth-century palaeontology and ancient Celtic myth. In her finely crafted songs, Lane demonstrates a real gift for storytelling and introduces us to a fascinating cast of characters, both real and imagined.

Lane’s delicate yet immensely expressive vocals accompanied by her own skillful guitar playing as well as a talented cast of supporting musicians (Mia Scott, Louis Bertoud, Jay Taylor, Sol Edwards, Jenny Sturgeon, Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl) all serve to ensure that Hallival is a very fine debut folk album indeed.

Released: 25 March 2022

http://www.ionalane.com/

Related reviews:

Folk: album review – Rachel Newton & Lauren MacColl ‘Heal & Harrow’

Folk: album review – Jenny Sturgeon ‘The Living Mountain’

Folk: album review – Rachel Newton & Lauren MacColl ‘Heal & Harrow’

Album reviews, Folk music, , , , , , ,

Witches have been in the news of late, with Scottish First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, issuing a formal apology to those who were executed under Scotland’s sixteenth and seventeenth century witchcraft laws.

Sturgeon’s apology was in response to the ‘Witches of Scotland’ campaign which has sought to obtain an official pardon for those, mainly women, who were persecuted as witches. The Survey of Scottish Witchcraft has pulled together a comprehensive database of known prosecutions taking place, between the first execution in 1479 and the final one in 1727, revealing that at least 2,500 people were killed.

It’s not only in the Scottish Parliament where the plight of those persecuted has resonated. Acclaimed Scottish traditional musicians and composers, Rachel Newton and Lauren MacColl, have been equally moved by this dark period in Scotland’s history. Collaborating with author and academic, Mairi Kidd, Heal & Harrow is an album of original music, songs and readings drawn from Kidd’s specially-commissioned writing.

Kidd writes in the accompanying booklet: “Heal & Harrow is a dream project for a writer, but a challenging one, too. Choosing ten women from the thousands persecuted for witchcraft was a daunting task, never mind selecting also from the legion of sister who experienced less extreme versions of the same forces.”

The result is a haunting but compelling album that honours the memory of women who fell victim to that lethal combination of misogyny, superstition and paranoia which gave rise to the witch-hunts. Women like Lillias Addie, who is commemorated in the opening track. She was accused of witchcraft after being shopped by a neighbour but died before her trial. Escaping the horror of being burned to death she remains the only person in Scotland that was accused of witchcraft to have a known grave.

Newton’s  harp, stark and slightly other-worldly, and MacColl’s fiddle, brooding and melancholy, are the dominant sounds on the album, providing a beautifully evocative backdrop for Newton’s pure yet fragile-sounding vocal or the duo’s soft, gentle spoken-word interludes.

Sorcery and witchcraft have been a recurring theme in folk for centuries but amidst the melodramatic, cartoon-like portrayals it’s sometimes easy to forget the horrendous human tragedies that resulted from society’s obsession. Heal & Harrow redresses that balance and gives a voice to those so accused. A stunning album.

Released: 4th February 2022

https://www.healandharrow.com/