Katy Rose Bennett – Alone On A Hill
Little House On The Hill Records – 24 September 2021
The perceived wisdom is that lightning doesn’t strike twice in the same place. I, for one, however, am beginning to doubt the veracity of this statement. In 2020 I chose Katy Rose Bennett’s Where Does It Hurt as one of my albums of the year, and it is highly likely that I will do the same with her latest release, Alone On The Hill.
Whilst the previous album was a showcase selection comprising tracks taken from her previous five full-length albums covering a career that has seen her composing and performing her music for 20 years, the latest release includes new songs, primarily written and recorded during the Covid19 pandemic lockdown and inspired by the subsequent living in isolation.
Having moved, in 2019, from central Birmingham to the rural outskirts south of the city, indeed to a little house on the hill, to seek peace, tranquillity, calm and a creative environment, following several challenging years, she was granted the opportunity, space, time and resources to both explore and experiment with creating music using just her voice and body percussion, courtesy of Arts Council England. This album, entirely a cappella, with a little bit of ‘electroacoustic sound design’, whilst not an original intended outcome, is the absorbing result.
To be read alongside, and in synch, with this, around March 2020, Katy began making her first forays into split-screen a cappella videos of songs that she sings with her Moseley Voices Community Choir. As her acuity with the medium increased, Katy’s realisation that she was more than adept at multi-layered a cappella singing took hold, re-igniting memories of her teenage years when she would borrow her brother’s four-track, to record a cappella songs with nonsense lyrics.
Alone On A Hill was recorded and produced entirely in her home studio (spoiler alert – the office/hallway space between her kitchen and lounge), mixed by friend and music mentor Jim Cornick, and subsequently mastered at Bakewell Audio by James Trevascus. The subject matter within the songs covers themes such as isolation, anxiety, insomnia, the natural world, in particular trees, birds, butterflies, the wind and the sun, together with loneliness, nostalgia, belonging and ‘gratitude for the people and things that have kept me going’. The a cappella focus perhaps should not have come as a surprise; however, when one thinks back to When I Close My Eyes, a gospel-tinged a cappella track appearing on her previous album, which may just have been an indicator of things to come.
The opening track, When The Wind Blows, far removed in content from the 1980s Raymond Briggs book/play/film of the same name, is a gloriously expansive celebration of wide-open skies and, totally in keeping with a house on the hill, the tactile experience of the wind against the skin
Sometimes when the wind blows
I open every window in the house
So that I can feel it on my skin
Insomnia is a condition with which many will identify and empathise. Whilst Katy’s single release of February 2021, Darling Dear Darling, the video of which premiered on Folk Radio UK here, tangentially addressed not being able to sleep in the lyrics, Sleep, the second track on this new album addresses insomnia full on.
The first single taken from Alone On A Hill, Sleep is a superbly crafted, intelligent song of two distinct halves reflecting the full force of Katy’s creative skills. The initial desire and need for sleep and its propensity for distorting time is perfectly mirrored in both the repeated lyrics
I cannot sleep I’ve tried
All night long
Checked the clock a thousand times
And the hands keep moving on…
and the electronically processed body percussion/breathing courtesy of Valhalla equipment, until soporific, dreamlike harmonies, involving the single titular word, envelop the listener before fading gently, almost hypnotically, certainly celestially, into a somnolent state.
Lest one should imagine that an album of a cappella songs might be repetitious, then let’s nail that one on the head firmly. On Alone On The Hill, there is a wonderous variety throughout, with Katy truly displaying the versatility of what is, after all, the first instrument, and careful listening will reveal new aural nuggets on each playing. Thus Head Above The Water, a song that initially appears to relate to anxiety.
Trying to keep my head above the water
Is proving to be an intolerable task…
but ends on a note which suggests some potential for optimism
But I can hear you calling…
Or am I hallucinating?
I can hear music up in the air
Somewhere over there
has a swing reminiscent of bebop whilst I Have A Song, the only co-write on the album, written with cousin Lucy Minford, with its gorgeous, sweeping background harmonies, is redolent of barbershop at its best and, if my interpretation of the lyrics is correct, has a similar theme to the previous song
Dark matter stuck in my throat
Pushing me down, down to the floor…
But now I have a song in my mind
And it springs from a place I couldn’t find
Katy’s love of, and respect for, nature is also reflected in two songs which almost meld into each other as one. Frankley Beeches is a tiny wood in Worcestershire, close to the junction of M42 & M5 motorways, which also gives its name to the first of these. This small clump of trees, a legacy of the Cadbury family and now under the stewardship of the National Trust, is a defiant outpost standing against the increasing surrounding urbanisation. On this very short track, Katy’s introductory vocalisations give way to a heartfelt description of her feelings for the place of great importance to her before immediately leading into the superb vocal layering of Trees which, whilst evoking a picture of pastoral bliss, also emphasise their vital role in terms of Katy’s well-being, health and strength.
The technique of merging one song into another with virtually no break is repeated later on the disc when Seventeen elides into Make Me Forget. The former, which to these ears brings Suzanne Vega very much to mind, rather than Janis Ian, is a thoughtful piece in which Katy questions whether, after
Seventeen years in this town
Seventeen
Seventeen years in this town
Do I belong here?
While this is presumably an autobiographical query relating to Birmingham, perhaps it is not too fanciful to suggest that it might be more universal in its scope and apply to others, migrants immediately springing to mind. Regardless, assuming the question is not rhetorical, my answer to both would be a resounding yes; you do indeed belong. Loneliness, or at least various things that help dismiss it, is the subject of the aptly titled Makes Me Forget, a gently lilting song that, once again, exposes the honesty of Katy’s work.
Nostalgia is clearly the theme of Box In The Attic, a long, autobiographical piece reminiscent in style to previous songs from Katy in the way that the narrative is written very much as if conversational. With photographs in the said box stimulating memories of beach holidays, sibling births, and attending festivals, and verses addressed to each of her three brothers, the overall sound is akin to that produced by the very best female harmony groups entertaining us many years before Katy herself was born. The phrase ‘blood, sweat and beer’, merely provides the head on the pint, so to speak.
The second single, Devil, might be regarded by some as the centrepiece of the album, both literally and metaphorically. This dark, even foreboding, song, was written in response to a brief and sudden episode of depression and paranoia experienced by Katy a couple of years ago, just before Covid striking. In exploring the Machiavellian ways that the devil, in whatever manifestation, can swiftly and surreptitiously gain control of the mind through deception, transmutation, cunning and temptation, Katy has created an unnerving yet potently intriguing sound. One verse and the refrain will indicate the disturbing depth of the lyrics
Oh, he woos me with his honey lips
And he stills me with his dancing eye
In my mouth the poison drips
In my ear turns truth to lie
Devil got into my head
Thought it was just the wind
Devil jumped into my bed
Thought he was just a friend
Originally written on guitar, the song has been arranged for four-part a cappella vocal harmony; as Katy explains, ‘essentially each voice takes a string of the guitar and sings the notes played by that string (mostly!) looping incessantly for the whole song.’ Add into the mix the percussive sounds of chest-beating and heavy breathing, experiment with delay, EQ and reverb, manipulate through the Valhalla plug-ins and the voices in the head, anguish and disorientation are highlighted. Building in intensity and frequency, over the final minute of the track, these sounds gradually envelop the original vocals to create a genuinely disconcerting ending to an unsettling song.
Bringing the album to a conclusion is Growing Peas. After another brief mention of not sleeping well, elements of domesticity such as watching the news, enjoying butterflies and bees and growing peas are mentioned before there is introspection as Katy questions what is really important, what are life’s necessities at this stage in the pandemic. Perhaps unsurprisingly, a return to playing live music and human connection feature,
Oh I really need to see you
And sing songs out loud
Be in a place with the people I love
And play to a real live crowd
A situation that will be hopefully be rectified on upcoming live dates with her new a cappella group, Katy Rose Bennett & The Frankley Beeches.
In my review of her previous album, I optimistically looked forward, in her future work, to “even more wide-open skies”. Katy has exceeded my expectations. Alone on A Hill is a markedly unique release, which many will consider brave. The response to that comment is simple, Qui audet adipiscitur. She is to be applauded for pushing boundaries and creating a truly fascinating and intriguing album of what her PR terms ‘folktronicappella’.
Live Dates
22 SEP 21 – LONDON – Green Note, Camden (+support Sophie Crawford)
26 SEP 21 – BIRMINGHAM – Kitchen Garden Cafe
29 SEP 21 – ONLINE – Live To Your Living Room
08 OCT 21 – WREXHAM – Focus Wales, Old No. 7 Bar
Ticket links: http://katyrosebennett.com/live
Order Alone On A Hill via https://katyrosebennettmusic.bandcamp.com
More here: http://katyrosebennett.com/