Brona McVittie – We are the wildlife
Beautiful album of pastoral folk sounds with a kosmische sense of adventure from the County Down native. Opener ‘When the angels wake you’ introduces some key elements – a traditional sounding harp melody and an electronic bed full of drift and intrigue. McVittie’s voice has a wonderful lilt to it and one of the delights of the album is how this traditional singing style interacts with the electronic and ambient details of the soundscape. ‘And the glamour fell on her’ for example features a reverbed cello pizzicato pattern with space echo steel guitar floating around it. The vocal part is made up of longer held notes layered which have the effect of emphasising the density of the backdrop. The whole thing is quite reminiscient of the cosmic meditations of Colleen. ‘Broken like the morning’ has a chamber pop feel with cheer up flute against sombre cello while sprightly harp arpeggios fill in the background. These unexpected shifts in texture are a constant progressiv...