Artist: Olivia Graham
Title: Faerie Songbook
Type: Album
Label: Digital / Self Released
So I was contacted to ask to give this a listen, pretty much based on my love of ElvenDale (first ever review on here) so with my usual condition I’d listen and only if I liked it would I review it… er… and here we are. So I guess spoiler alert?
What musician Olivia Graham brings here, apart from the dizzying array of traditional and a couple of modern instruments she plays, is folk music but very much immersed in folklore, fantasy and Arthurian legend. Everything here save for two traditional lullabies, is either entirely written by Olivia or in the case of two songs, poems set to her music.
The opener, ‘The Stolen Child’ has words penned by William Butler Yeats (who was introduced to many of my generation of metalheads by Thin Lizzy). The sound of running water, spoken words in a delicate tone as harp (forgive me if I get instruments wrong) and whistle drops the sweetest of sunlit notes but when her voice comes in I am… left breathless I realise. It is simply the purest, brightest tone used as another instrument to accompany the poem. It is like something just beyond your perception stepping around your chosen place to rest beside a stream. A presence that beckons, entices and offeres you somewhere magical to go to.
I think somewhere around here I realised I was going to review this.
‘The Gartan Mother’s Lullaby’ is a tradional song herei wrapped in deep, and a little sombre wash of keyboards, fading light and Olivia’s voice taking a deeper key, an absolutely beautiful hint of vibrato to it that would sooth a child or an adult. It simply but gentle give you pause, stills your thoughts and offers a sweet peace as the shadows grow. It sings of safety, of love and I cannot lie, I felt my throat swell a little, my eyes perhaps ache. It draws emotion from you as delicately as a single strand of wool pulled across your skin. It’s a rare talent indeed.
Which is why the first all original song ‘White Roses’ took me further. Olivia Graham is from York, myself born not much more than a short horse ride away. It is a lament; that voice using the vibrato and the perfect notes, the piano and fiddle all seemingly gazing into the past, the thoughts of a lost King of the line of York. History and legend and fantasy woven into the soul given a voice. But the more I listen the more it becomes a song I feel in my own heart, the wondering as I walk into maybe my last years of life as to what I leave behind and where I will lie. Who will say where they will bury me now…. My skin chills, tears threaten. This is what music can do. It becomes part of me, it speaks to me and to hear it in such a beautiful voice and delicate music is just a wonder.
First listen I needed a moment to carry on, but ‘Fawn’, a rich instrumental of harp and the beautifully arranged keyboards as the landscape behind it, is as beautiful as the subject gives me a smile. Wonder still exists indeed.
Now I hope this doesn’t sound as an excuse as I honeslty could lead you not by note through every song, but this album is a wonder. I genuinely feel I need to leave you secrets to find and tales to unlock. So perhaps a few more sparse words. ‘Excalibur Rising’ is proof that a powerful tune can be epic even when so simply played and so mythic with even a few words. ‘Morgan Le Fay’ is dark, a warning but with such a glistening jewel of beauty within its deep rooted folk lilt that it could persuade you of anything. ‘Waulking The Wool’ a work song of rhythm and honour to both the women who made the land and the faerie folk who they knew to be beside them.
Robert Burns’ ‘My Heart’s In The Highlands’ is set to a lovely tune full of that twist of love, regret at leaving but still a sense to me of what it is to travel. ‘A Ballyeamon Cradle Song’, another traditional, once more could make the most frightened of children feel safety.
‘Samhain’ is a farewell, a perfect end to the collection. A wistful goodbye. That strange waltz of emotions where relief meets grief and the goodbye is that strange sad acceptance. Your ghost goes dancing ‘cross the bridge for one last song. I’m not afraid to follow when I come at last to journey’s end….
Olivia Graham here has stirred such emotion within me it is… frightening, but also feels so human and offers a comfort I need. The album is beautiful. It is sweet, and loving and sombre and threaded with melancholy but most importantly her gorgeous voice and incredible touch for both songwriting and performing offer paths to wander and experience and simply allow yourself to be safe in her musical hands. Safe to feel.
The thing is I just know this is music that would appeal to so many who dwell in the dungeon synth and various other sub-strata of metal. I’ve been at metal festivals held in rapt attention by dark age music, acoustic harps, bagpipes and unaccompanied vocals. Olivia Graham’s approach is a perfect mix of history and fantasy and tradition that so many in the metal community understand. Anyone who walks fields, breathes the air on hills and shelters beneath a forest canopy can understand this music, and anyone who has a soul wrapped in folklore and fantasy will feel like they have come home.
Stunned. Utterly and completely stunned and more than a tear offered in thanks.
White Roses, though…. white Roses
Gizmo
Walking The Liminal Space 