From Amazon.com
Folk strains, art songs, and electronic atmospherics combine for a beguiling blend in the debut by this Manchester trio. The British folk comes mainly from guitarist Pete Philipson, whose playing recalls the era of Pentangle's Bert Jansch and John Renbourn. The art comes from French transplant Helene Gautier, Philipson's songwriting partner, whose upper register sounds ethereal on "Time Is for Leaving" and "Tredog," but reminds of darker chanteuses such as Nico or Marianne Faithfull on "Allsight." The atmospherics are provided by Raz Ullah, whose keyboards and other electronics suggest the "treatments" that Brian Eno once brought to Roxy Music. With a rhythm section on some cuts and chamber horns on the jazzy "B.B.," the music covers a lot of territory and offers continual surprises, without straying from the folk underpinnings of Philipson's guitar. There's an Irish lilt to the instrumental "Untitled Cantiga," while the following "The Bitter Cup" opens with a drone of an Indian rage. The propulsive "Hermoine" could pass as a Velvet Underground outtake.
--Don McLeese