HEM
Album: Departure And Farewell
Label: Waveland
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.hemmusic.com

Brooklyn based band HEM have released several critically acclaimed albums. Departure and Farewell has been a long time in the making. I will begin by saying that the cover art is fascinating and immediately drew me in. The CD contains twelve well crafted (by Dan Messe and Steve Curtiss) songs accompanied by beautiful instrumentation; , unsurprisingly, however, it is Sally Ellyson's exquisite voice, which really makes this CD stand out from the off as something truly special. Unusually and very successfully, they combine their beloved country and folk sound with a more classical sound, for this, their sixth release.

Probably the most personal song on the CD, to the band themselves, is Tourniquet, born of the troublesome past they had as a band - "Everything about who we were, where we lived, and how we related to each other seemed beyond repair," band pianist-songwriter Dan Messe recently told NPR. It still amazes me that such beautiful music can come about from unpleasant experiences.

When listening to the collection at night, in the dark, with candles burning, it takes on an almost ethereal quality, as HEM take you on a journey through a beautiful musical landscape. A perfect album for cold nights, cozied up inside, it deserves to arrive in many homes; I doubt it will be departing from many!

Helen Mitchell