Angeline Morrison & The Rowan Amber Mill
Album: Silent Night Songs for a Cold Winter's Evening
Label: Millersounds
Tracks: 6
Website: http://www.millersounds.co.uk

With around 20 minutes of sensual seasonal music from the West Country, this, highly desirable, beautifully handcrafted release teams Ambassadors Of Sorrow singer/songwriter/producer Angeline with noted Devon-based purveyors of "pastoral folkadelica" The Rowan Amber Mill. It's an immensely evocative warmth-in-a-chilly-climate offering whose avowed intent is to summon forth the spirit and aura of a woodland idyll in winter - and succeeds admirably I feel. It starts and finishes with a brace of Silent Nights - vocal and instrumental takes respectively - which manage to be both gently irresistible and genially likeable (even to someone who counts the piece among the least favourite of common carols!) without sounding cloying.

Between these points, the music is even more satisfying and comforting; the strategically-placed centrepiece is a joy-giving, bright-eyed gurdy-bedecked I Saw Three Ships, but the true heart of the mini-album lies in the pair of Stephen Stannard compositions either side of it: the quite gorgeous floaty, hazy fireside drift of Cold Winter Morning balanced by the instrumental adventure Sleepy Woodyard (recalling early Pink Floyd, perhaps), although the ensuing glistening arrangement of one of the many traditional Wassail songs also has much to commend it and is exactly in tune with the vision of the remainder of the collaboration.

Snap this one up while you can - it's obtainable, quoth the website, "as a limited edition pro-grade CDr digipack version exclusively available from Millersounds' shop, a deluxe download version available from Bandcamp, and standard downloads (with bonus track/s, extra artwork, video etc) available from the Millersounds Digital Emporium, iTunes etc."

David Kidman