While I Sit and Watch This Tree

Lizabett Russo is a cool, gently hypnotic singer whose songs drift effortlessly between folk and jazz, with echoes of her East European roots added in. Born in Romania and now living in Scotland, she has developed a unique style based around her impressive vocal range and obvious love of experimentation. She can start out sounding quiet and breathy, but then the song may drift away almost completely before she suddenly returns with grand, upward swoops, improvised scatting or passages that would appeal to psych-folk fans.

It's an intriguing mix, and her singing is matched by equally classy and subtle instrumentation. She accompanies herself on classical guitar and charango (presumably the result of her travels in South America) and other musicians include the Scottish jazz and folk guitarist Graeme Stephen and Aidan O'Rourke, of Lau fame, on violin. You have to be good to attract players like those. She composed all but one of the songs, which include two in Romanian, along with ‘Tiny Seed’, which sounds like a gently improvised meditation, and the thoughtful, presumably autobiographical ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’. It's an intriguing set, and she proves she can even rework British folk favourites with her exquisite treatment of ‘The Water is Wide’.