You Are Wolf – KELD
Firecrest Records – 23 March 2018
Kerry Andrew is an acclaimed composer and vocalist, and You Are Wolf is her alt.folk project. KELD, her second album, is both ethereal and down-to-earth, deeply connected to tradition while at the same time spiced with tasteful experimental production courtesy of producer Majiker, known from his work with French alt-pop queen Camille. Minimalist to a fault and with the vocals front and centre, the first comparison that springs to mind is Norwegian alt.folk singer Susanna.
KELD is an old northern English word meaning “the deep, still, smooth part of a river”. The common thread that unites the songs in this release is freshwater, a theme as old as humanity itself, and it brilliantly connects old and new. There are both traditional folk songs and originals on this release, but it’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins as all tracks share a feeling of beguiling timelessness.
The album is first and foremost a showcase for Kerry Andrews’ beautiful, versatile voice as both a solo voice and a musical building block, constructing intricate layers of vocal harmony in a virtuosic manner. Multi-instrumentalist Sam Hall and percussionist Peter Hashwell, the other two members of You Are Wolf, fill out the sound with sparse and tasteful performances on bass, cello, guitar, percussion and vibes.
The album opens to The Baffled Knight, simply Andrew singing what sounds like an old sea shanty over the sounds of a gurgling brook which was recorded at Gramarye Cottage, County Leitrim, Ireland, it is perfect in its simple beauty.
As Sylvie was Walking is a minimalist tour de force, featuring Andrew’s soaring vocals over minimal accompaniment by plucked cello, building ever so slowly and majestically into perfect chamber pop as the cello switches from plucking to bowing and the singer adds her own celestial backup vocals. Beautifully understated, almost architectural in structure.
Breathe In Breathe Out has a slightly disjointed feel, built on a haphazard loop, with various stringed instruments on top and layered vocals. The result sounds like deconstructed folk, as intriguing as it is unsettling.
If Boys Could Swim starts off with a simple upright bass and cello figure, over which Andrew sings a sad drowning tale. Like most of the album, this track is sparse and majestic at the same time, as vaguely Eno-esque sounds and cavernous backup vocals float in and out.
A folk ballad by Archie Fisher (from The Man With A Rhyme, 1976) Witch of the Westmerlands at first sounds like traditional folk stripped down to its barest essence, with Andrews singing over nothing more than tribal sounding percussion. As she is joined by poet Robert Richardson, the track grows into another minimalist cathedral of sound before dissolving into an apocalyptic lament. A brilliantly inventive way to explore the dark underbelly of traditional folk music.
“Drowndown” is built on funeral drums and somber bass, over which Andrews intones a haunting melody, repeating “do not go down to the water’s edge, the children will drown” over and over again until the song breaks down into a Laurie Anderson-like choir of sampled voices and finally evolves into a triumphant chorus chanting “I’ll carry you away-look into my eyes”.
KELD is an album of eerie, understated beauty that combines folk traditions with experimental soundscapes. Both timeless and modern, it connects old and new and adds another fascinating chapter to the ever-evolving saga of British folk music.
Watch the new video for Drowndown – a film by Sammy-Jo Tawn
A song about vengeful rivers, partly inspired by the saying ‘River Dart, River Dart, every year thou claim’st a heart.’ In legend, the river cried out for a human life and lured a young farm boy by calling his name; indeed, it has claimed several over the years. Kerry wrote a chamber opera, Dart’s Love, in 2014 with librettist Tamsin Collison, who drew on the Dart’s tendency to flood.
It’s also inspired by the monsters and spirits, from Jenny Greenteeth to the kappa (‘river child’) and kawatora (‘river-tiger’) demons of Japanese folklore, used by adults to warn their children from going too close to the edge.
Order KELD https://youarewolf.lnk.to/keld
Kerry has also published her debut novel ‘Swansong’
In this stunningly assured, immersive and vividly atmospheric first novel, a young woman comes face-to-face with the volatile, haunted wilderness of the Scottish Highlands.
Polly Vaughan is trying to escape the ravaging guilt of a disturbing incident in London by heading north to the Scottish Highlands. As soon as she arrives, this spirited, funny, alert young woman goes looking for drink, drugs and sex – finding them all quickly, and unsatisfactorily, with the barman in the only pub. She also finds a fresh kind of fear, alone in this eerie, myth-drenched landscape. Increasingly prone to visions or visitations – floating white shapes in the waters of the loch or in the woods – she is terrified and fascinated by a man she came across in the forest on her first evening, apparently tearing apart a bird. Who is this strange loner? And what is his sinister secret?
Kerry Andrew is a fresh new voice in British fiction; one that comes from a deep understanding of the folk songs, mythologies and oral traditions of these islands. Her powerful metaphoric language gives Swansong a charged, hallucinatory quality that is unique, uncanny and deeply disquieting.
Order Swansong via Hive