Edgelarks

In the last issue I reviewed Shake the Chains – an album that resulted from a protest-song project conceived by singer Greg Russell and featuring Devon singer and fiddler Hannah Martin. She contributed two of the songs on the album – ‘Song of the Jay’ and ‘Yarl’s Wood' – the latter being the standout track of the entire project. Both songs now feature here on the fourth studio album with her long-time musical partner, the multi-instrumentalist Phillip Henry.
Martin has one of the most impressive voices in English folk today. Its depth and texture are captivating, her turns of phrase singular, allowing her to turn the simple lyrics of the opener ‘Landlocked’ into something majestic through her mastery of tone. Henry brings instrumental breadth – from Indian slide guitar courtesy of his time with Debashish Bhattacharya to his beatbox harmonica sounds. This experimental approach is added to by John Elliott's sound sampling and percussion, Lukas Drinkwater's bass and Niall Robinson's tabla.
This album builds on the foundation of their English folk pedigree but takes it into innovative terrain. It's one of the most original folk albums to come out for some time and, while rooted, is also global in its musical reach and thought-provoking in its conception.