Georgia Ruth
Album: Week Of Pines
Label: Gwymon
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.georgiaruthmusic.co.uk

This distinctive and mesmerising disc heralds the debut of Aberystwyth-raised singer, songwriter and harpist Georgia Ruth Williams (jettisoning her surname for the purposes of this record). It also heralds her return to Wales after a spell living in Brighton and London, and its potent, waking-dreamlike ambience configures both modern and traditional soundscapes into an altogether intriguing and often surprising musical experience.

Much of the disc's pervasive atmosphere of gentleness and calm emanates from the unique combination of Georgia's own special talents. Most notable, of course, is her pure and commendably agile vocal work (equally adept whether singing in English or Welsh). The beguiling delicacy and graceful expressiveness of her voice may recall Vashti Bunyan, but the tone is altogether stronger, and I was also reminded of Charlotte Greig and Nancy Elizabeth among more recent nu-folk performers. It may not exactly be a traditional-folk sound, but Georgia's still encompasses traditionally-inclined styling for its poetic adventures. And then again, I hear Sandy Denny too, especially on the gorgeous Winter and the wistful, measured folk-rock of A Slow Parade, whereas the flightier melodic contours of In Luna recall early Joni Mitchell.

Instrumentally, Georgia's deft vocalising is reflected in her comparably agile harpistry, wherein she adopts a variant of the trusty fingerpicked style beloved of folky guitar masters like Bert Jansch and Meic Stevens. Although Georgia's ripplesome harp provides much of the album's musical signature, there's plentiful textural variety in the instrumental settings throughout; she also plays piano and reed organ, while in fulsome and tasteful support on several tracks we encounter the "Hughes clan" (Iwan, Aled and Dafydd from the band Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog), who provide the ideal level and type of backing for each song, according to the demands of the lyrics, whether that be soft-toned guitars and keyboards (Seeing You Around) or a more solid-state twang (A Slow Parade). Sometimes too, there's more of a motoric electronic pulse, as drives along Georgia's precisely enunciated lyric (Nico after elocution?) on the album's title song, or the Eno-like postlude of Mapping. Album highlights include the sinister seascape of Dovecote, which is chillingly conveyed with the bell tolling for the headless body "hung upside down to sea", the organ-backed hymn-like shanty Codi Angor (with, I think, Iwan Hughes on harmony vocals), and a deliciously plaintive (and entirely apposite) take on the Appalachian ballad Old Blue - the last two mentioned figuring large within the non-self-penned quotient of the disc. The one and only disappointing aspect of this enchanting CD is its skimpy presentation, in that the booklet provides lyrics to just four out of Georgia's eight original songs here; only one of these (Hallt) is in Welsh, and even then there's no English translation supplied.

David Kidman