Jen Ord
Album: Many's A Mile(EP)
Label: Haystack
Tracks: 4
Website: http://www.facebook.com/jenordmusic

Although she grew up with parents involved in local clog and morris sides at home in Cumbria, Jen's a new face on the folk performer scene: a singer and pianist who's bravely developed her own unique take on her chosen material. Her warm, rich and pure-toned voice betrays a certain degree of formal study, and her technique is very assured. A classical training informs her stylish self-accompaniment too, thereby imparting a romantic sensibility to her interpretations by embellishing the song's message much as it would in the performance of a classical Lied (art-song) rather than in a more consciously "folky" manner.

The intensity and surprising lushness of the music-making on this four-track release, Jen's debut recording, might for some be almost too much to take in one sitting, but I found myself captivated to the extent that I'd wished the record were a full-lengther. The carefully considered theme of the EP is the agony of distance between lovers, as expressed in two different scenarios. The disc contains two examples of each: its title is taken from Live Not Where I Love, and in tandem with I Wonder What Is Keeping My True Love Tonight (most famously, perhaps, covered by Kate Rusby on her Sleepless album), that pair of songs explores physical separation, whereas The Cuckoo and Alistair Hulett's poignant Song Of A Drinking Man's Wife both concern a breakdown in communication and understanding.

The last-mentioned song, performed unaccompanied, is particularly sensitively handled. Indeed, the hallmark of all of Jen's treatments is a certain quality of "expect the unexpected", for Jen is nothing if not thoughtful in her unashamedly individual takes on songs that are, or are likely to be, familiar to the seasoned folk enthusiast. The Cuckoo is a good example, where rippling piano arpeggios usher in unexpectedly jazzy syncopations, lending an unusually carefree tripping demeanour to the proceedings while underscored by a sumptuous string arrangement (courtesy of Jen's brother Pete and involving her twin sister Kath and three other musicians). Live Not Where I Love benefits from an intelligent use of the selectively florid string quartet colouring, but this time with acoustic guitar (Dan Wilde) in place of Jen's piano. Jen's interpretation of I Wonder… gains an extra dimension through the restless piano and double bass accompaniment, which is overlaced by some imaginative and unsettling vocal harmonies.

As you'll hear, then, each track is treated refreshingly differently, as befits Jen's heartfelt and personal take on the songs; this is the mark of an enviably empathic interpreter, one who's not afraid to experiment in order to realise and communicate her extra-ord-inary (pun intended!) vision of the song. I greatly look forward to hearing a full-length CD from Jen in due course.

David Kidman