In terms of Lavinia Blackwall’s own catalogue and the tapestry of delights that is psychedelic folk music, I expect listeners to find that The Making is a welcome addition to both. Lavinia’s music is psych-infused but wholly of her own grain, and this is an exquisite new album from the former Trembling Bells multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. It is the second solo LP she has created and a more personal collection shaped by the happiness and hardship endured over the past four years. Talking of the recording process at The Barne Studios, Lavinia has stated, “The whole process took much longer than intended; life seemed to happen around it. There was a lot of darkness; my partner and collaborator Marco Rea lost his mum in 2021 and very nearly his dad shortly after. I lost my dad in October 2023, but there was a lot of light too, a lot of time spent in Italy and up at our cabin at Carbeth, all of which leaked into the songs”.
Keep Me Away From The Dark opens the record in celestial surroundings, all tingly-tangly acoustics, ringing piano notes, shuffling percussion and layered vocals raining down from the skies like a cloud break chorus. The minor chord traumas of the verses being banished in the major key choruses that turn dark to colour in kaleidoscopic rainbow bursts. The Damage We Have Done was previously released as a single a couple of years ago, but its finery ensures its presence as a worthy inclusion here. It is hard not to think of the climate emergency within the lyrics, singing of our fast-passing moment as “kings for a day”, the parasites that we are living off the planet whilst wilfully ignoring how we damage it. It is also all too easy to miss, amongst the vintage acid-folk stylings which seem second nature to Lavinia, that her songs instinctively form earworms of the most delightful and welcome kind. Scarlett Fever has the mournful timbre of a church hymn and a wonderful sound, a solo keys lead part that has that evocative school hall piano echo that always seems to push my nostalgia senses in the most delightful way. That school connection turns out to be appropriate for this song. It was born out of a task set to Lavinia by her former history teacher, John Plowright, who had written the lyrics before requesting his former pupil set them to music.
My Hopes Are All Mine asks, amid cascading horns and a mood of defiant optimism, “What you going to give me when my hopes are all mine and yours are all gone?.” This one adds even more layers to the period authenticity by featuring Maggie Reilly on backing vocals, she of ‘Moonlight Shadow’ vocal fame. While the lyric deals with the dissolution of her former band, the Trembling Bells, rather than drag it down, it affirms a creative journey and artistic independence that continues to push onwards and upwards.
Morning to Remember is another tune that previously appeared as a single. It initially feels conventionally structured, while her senses are spinning with colours and smells of the surrounding environment, which has a splendidly dizzying effect on the music, perhaps best illustrated by the accompanying video her band made for this song, in which the dancing mirrors the spirited approach.
The album’s title track is a seductive melange of medieval breakdowns and jubilant brassy stabs redolent of an early seventies’ cult-classic movie score, all very Ron Geesin but executed oh so well. We All Get Lost has the backdoor reverie of a Midlake classic and some marvellous descending vocal phrases that bring Annie Haslam of Renaissance to mind. By the time the see-saw verses of The Art Of Leaving come around and the chorus line builds to a magnificent climax ahead of a fuzz guitar solo (you got to have the fuzz), it is clear this album is a masterwork of the acid-folk form devoid of weak spots. The confidence on display is such that by the penultimate song, The Will To Be Wild, Lavinia is rhyming “tonic” with “ironic” in the same line without a flicker of hesitation. The stained glass on the floor at the start of the closing number, Sisters In Line, reminds us that Lavinia inhabits this 50+ year vintage period to the max; there are no concessions to any audio dynamics heard any time since 1974, and why would there be? Lavinia makes the music that speaks her soul, and she has an undiluted connection to the sounds and aesthetics of this rich period, which she continues to evolve and nurture with some incredible music of her own.
The Making (May 30th, 2025) The Barne Society
Bandcamp: https://laviniablackwall.bandcamp.com/album/the-making