Kitty Macfarlane - Namer of Clouds

The Guardian 60

(Navigator)

Intimacy with landscape is one of folk music’s inspirations and attractions – recent examples include Seth Lakeman’s passion for Devon and Alasdair Roberts’s for the St Kilda archipelago. Kitty Macfarlane’s home turf is Somerset, which is celebrated on this impressive debut. Starling Song captures the wonder of a murmuration above the Avalon marshes; Man, Friendship hymns the wildness of the same levels; whileMorgan’s Pantry warns of the capricious mermaids of the Bristol Channel.

Macfarlane’s vocal style is easy, tuneful and “in the tradition”, as the saying goes, but what sets her work apart is her affinity with the natural world and some startlingly poetic lyrics. Sea Silk uncovers the art of spinning from the filaments of the giant clam (a trip to Sardinia was involved) and the resultant cloths that glow “gold as the dusted moth”. The title track honours Luke Howard, who in 1802 classified clouds and “gave a name to something fleeting”. It builds into full-blown accompaniment, but most songs here receive a light touch from producers Sam Kelly and Jacob Stoney: a looping keyboard, a touch of mandolin, the ambience of lapping waves or birdsong. Delightful.