Paul Mosley
Album: A Chattering Of Birds
Label: Folkwit
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.paulmosley.com

"A Chattering Of Birds" is Paul Mosley's debut album for Nottingham based Folkwit records and hopefully having label support will help to unlock the wider audience that Paul Mosley should be reaching.

There is a bedsit intensity to the writing on "A Chattering Of Bird", where Mosley superimposes the personalities of our varies feather friends upon the human condition and as a metaphor it speaks really well. "Hummingbird" for example, looks as a bird that is best known for its visual appearance and wonders if it really wants to sing.

He does all this in a lush folk-jazz setting which incorporates both strings and horns. Joe Peet's double bass particularly makes an impressive contribution, particularly when it's being bowed and setting up a resonance for Tom Moth's plucked harp to work around.

There are wonderful soundscapes built for Mosley to weave his vocals around and it all adds to the personality of the song, providing a metaphore in the music that's as strong as the one in the narrative. "Red Crow" is a particularly good example of this as it explores the differences between two different members of the crow family.

Paul Mosley has delivered an album that has a deep reflective nature to it. "A Chattering Of Birds" is as much about contemplation as completion and one that makes you think, that'll do me.

Neil King