Rhythm and Booze - Review - Beside the Waves of Time
Iona Leigh is an Australian born, Scotland based singer-songwriter who blends acoustic guitars, fiddle and pipe to create uplifting airy folk covering such lyrical topics as nature, legend and folklore.
The album opens with Peaches In The Summertime, a lovely track that introduces Iona's gorgeous breezy vocals over a subtle acoustic guitar backing, the track, following on from this slight yet attractive opening number we're taken on a ride of stripped guitars, restrained violin and tapped drums in the shape of The Girl He Left Behind. Once again Iona delivers a lovely whilst the light instrumentation provides the perfect setting for the track.
The rest of the album continues in much the same vein, Must I Be Bound adds pipes to the already potent mix further bewitching the listener, Blackbird is a beautiful combination of plucked guitar, piano and violin, whilst White Dove adds beautiful vocal harmonies to the longest and perhaps most evocative track on the album.
The album simply washes over the listener, lush vocals and understated instrumentation create unique imagery and as I sat here listening intently my mind created visions of the sea crashing upon the shore in the early hours of the morning, walking in a deep green forest taking in the surroundings and other such vivid pictures and dreams.
Beside The Waves Of Time is one of those albums you have to surrender your senses to completely, allowing Iona's voice to take you on a wonderous journey of discovery. Iona Leigh bewitches and intoxicates with her stunning take on folk.
Rating: 9
Thank you Rythm & Booze.
Spiral Earth - Review - Beside the Waves of Time
There is some wonderful high quality music coming out of Scotland at the moment, although Iona Leigh was born in Australia and currently lives in London, her heart is firmly at home in the Highlands. Beside The Waves Of Time is her second album and the singer and harp player has gathered a formidable array of musicians around her to realise her vision.
Recorded at at Nick Turner's Watercolour Studio on the Ardgour Peninsula with Jarlath Henderson (Uillean Pipes), Duncan Lyall (Upright Bass), Findlay Napier (Guitar), Mary Ann Kennedy (Harp), Paul Jennings (Drums) and Gillian Frame (Fiddle). Iona has a delicious voice that crosses the divide of folk and pop/rock, the songs are concerned with love and it's manifestations and ramifications. Much is made of Iona's childhood spent in the Findhorn community in northern Scotland and I did wonder whether this presaged something of a new age kind of spiritual album, my preconceptions were firmly blown out of the window upon my first listen.
the songwriting and arrangements have a celtic vein running through them all and avoid the trap of falling in to a twee self referential form of celticity. The album is actually a very contemporary piece, the references to nature and legend are there but Iona deals with them in universal terms of love and loss that are easily related to. The production is wonderful, allowing her voice or particular instruments exactly the space they deserve.
Beside The Waves Of Time gets every ounce of quality from the assembled musicians and touches many musical bases in it's course, from the pipe driven folk rock of Let Erin Remember to the calm contemplation of Trees it never ceases to be mature and varied. Perhaps the final track No More Tears, evocative lyrics with a sparse musical arrangement, is the most arrestingly beautiful and is the song that I have gone back to most on the album.
Thank you Spiral Earth
