Bróna McVittie - The Man in the Mountain review | Jude Rogers's folk album of the month

The Guardian 0

(Company of Corkbots)
Mc Vittie’s new album tempers her soft folk in collaborations with electronic duo Isan and trumpeter Arve Henriksen

Softer, more pastoral takes on folk music are hard to get right. Compromises have to be made, otherwise they curdle into tweeness, or float away like dandelion clocks on the air. Bróna McVittie’s 2018 debut, We Are the Wildlife, managed to handle these hazards by meshing together her soft, Northern Irish delivery and bright, precise harp-playing with drones and electronics, adding unusual tones to the ballads she sang, many of which were about nature. It speaks volumes that McVittie is a trained microbiologist outside music. Here’s someone who understands the matter of things in microscopic detail.