Burd Ellen - Says the Never Beyond review | Jude Rogers's folk album of the month

The Guardian 0

(Self-released)
Debbie Armour and Gayle Brogan harmonise beautifully and add unnerving sounds to British seasonal songs

And so it is Christmas. Here’s what Burd Ellen have done: made a brilliant set of wintersongs from all across Britain that almost hovers in the air like an eerie snowglobe of sound. It begins with two minutes of buzzing drones, bowed cymbals, violin string scrapes, and distant murmurations of birdsong, setting a stage of pure ice and pitch blackness. Debbie Armour enters singing folk revival classic Please to See the King and when Gayle Brogan joins her in harmony, their Scottish voices mist together almost viscously.