Awna Teixeira
Album: Where The Darkness Goes
Label: Hazy Tales
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.hazytales.me

"Where The Darkness Goes" sees Po' Girl's Awna Teixeira take a brief busman's holiday from the band to release her debut solo album and a damned fine decision it looks to.

There is a delightful home spun feel to the album and by that I don't mean amateur, I mean a real arts and crafts feel. This is music that feels like it's been composed whilst gathered in the kitchen with friends and refined playing it off a porch to even more friends.

It's music, eloquently made with what was close to hand, be that an accordion or a gutbucket bass. At times the album has a delightful Tex-Mex feel with that driving accordion sound and simple percussion backing, whilst at other times, Awna seems to be possessed by the spirit of a Fado singer, determined to rip your heart asunder using song as her scalpel. Throw is a bit of good honest mountain music and you begin to get an idea of where Teixeria is coming from.

Because of the homespun feel, you get that sense that "Where The Darkness Goes" really captures the essence of the artist and I use the word artist rather than singer, because there are times when you almost feel that she is painting or at the very least sketching her songs.

At times you feel an almost childlike innocence in her work, almost a naive feeling that this is how she'd like it to be and then beautifully contrasts it with a lament that it's not like that and when you think about it, there's no reason why it shouldn't be.

"Where The Darkness Goes" is arts and crafts in musical form, there are places for layers of sound, times for minutely detailed pictures, this isn't one of them. This is a big bold statement of function and colour and to be honest, it's beautiful.

Neil King