Hlywing

After working with the likes of Ashley Hutchings and Rufus Wainwight, Ruth Angell finally records her debut solo album, and it proves to be an intriguing and exquisite set which shows that she's not just a fine violinist and guitarist but a highly original songwriter whose thoughtful, emotional lyrics and melodies match her cool voice. The title is from an old English word meaning shelter or refuge, and though there's a sense of tranquillity to much of the album, the atmospheric songs about birds or delight in the countryside are matched against others that deal with death or the pain of those who fail to find safe refuge. The one non-original song is Joni Mitchell's ‘Magdalene Laundries’, that powerful attack on the institutions to which unmarried mothers in Ireland were once sent, and the album also includes her haunting setting for Christina Rossetti's contemplation of mortality, ‘No Roses’. Angell's own songs include ‘Little Boy Blue’, a poignant lament for a child refugee who drowned trying to escape from Syria, and a glorious spooky folk-rocker, ‘Three Stags’, inspired by childhood memories from the Peak District. Hlywing is a very impressive set overall, marred only slightly by the synths and over-lush production on some tracks.