Rachel Newton
Album: Changeling
Label: Shadowside
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.rachelnewtonmusic.com

Best known for her involvement with The Shee, The Emily Portman Trio and more recently, The Furrow Collective, Rachel Newton's 'Changeling' project has given her free rein to explore the various songs and stories inspired by her fascination with faerie tales. In particular, it centres on the changeling - a creature believed to have been exchanged for a human child by faeries. Following her debut solo album, 'The Shadow Side', released in 2012, 'Changeling was supported by funding from Creative Scotland, receiving its premier earlier in the year at the 2104 Celtic Connections event.

The Gaelic culture has always had a strong influence on Rachel's music and performance - not only in the songs and stories, but also in her instrumental and arrangement skills. Taking both Gaelic and English language stories and adding them to traditional and original material, she has created an ethereal collection of songs and tunes which encapsulate what Rachel Newton is all about. Delicate and fragile, sparse and melodic, the album is one which entices the listener in, very much akin to the tales and fables of the subject matter.

The well-known Gaelic lullaby 'Mo Chubhrachan' sets the mood both musically and lyrically with the harp adding some subtle accompaniment over the main string backing. A mellow and restful opening which occasionally takes a turn with the likes of the ever so faintly urgent 'Queen Of Elfan's Nourice' which provides a different take on the theme where the mother rather than the child is taken by the faeries to nurse their young. This common piece of folklore is taken from Child ballad No. 40, and based on the belief that the mother rather than the babe was the vulnerable one after childbirth. A unsettling and sinister thought .

Although Rachel Newton is justifiably the focus, there's a minor digression with 'The Fairy Man' which features words by Scots poet Sidney Goodsir Smith, a vocal from Adam Holmes and some authentically trembling saw from Su-a Lee. A quirky and enigmatic piece, it broadens the musical palette and takes the theme of the album off at a slight tangent.

Placed right in the middle of the sequence are perhaps the most significant pieces of the album. The short and deceptively simple 'When I'm Gone' comes across as a cry from the heart - perhaps the unspoken thoughts of a lost child or mother with its simple repetitive refrain of "When I'm gone, why don't you know me?" accompanied by a gently plodding rhythm. It segues straight into 'Three Days', a fiddle, cello and viola piece accompanied by a strong visual image - three women gathered round the newborn child and mother for three days in a show of strength to ward off faeries - and sounds very much like the casting of a magical musical spell of protection.

Of the tunes, 'The Changeling Reel' offers up something more lively in contrast to the 'Changeling Air' which closes the record, which is altogether more of a soundtrack to demonstrate the slightly nefarious nature of the concept of changelings. After all that has gone before, it almost offers up a warning and a faintly chilling and solemnly ominous ending to the album.

Rather like the whole intriguing idea behind changelings, the album is a superb showcase for the unique talents of Rachel Newton - in the spotlight and in her element.

Like Jackie Oates' 'Lullabies' set, 'Changeling' has taken a theme and worked its magic

Mike Ainscoe