White Flowers is the debut album from this beguiling new folk duo who BrightonsFinest discovered At The Edge Of The Sea Festival. We were immediately enchanted and pleased to hear the album was going to be released so soon and launch planned at St. Laurence's Church in Falmer Village. Which is the location they used to record the actual album – a space that adds appropriate amounts of atmosphere to the mix as this very sparse but beautiful record which includes the groups interpretations and arrangements of old long forgotten folk songs, alongside their original compositions.

The first track on the album is 'Espera' which is Spanish for waiting room and also the name of a city in Cadiz. The dual voices of Emma Morton and Heather Minor sing in close melancholic harmony, accompanied by a haunting drone. When I saw the band live they used a portable suitcase-harmonium for these sorts of sounds, which looks like a strange bit of antique furniture.

'White Flowers' is the album title track and, to my ears, sounds quite medieval in its changes, space and counterpoint. The track contains piano and a fragile trembling vibrato voice with sparse harmonies. Again the song is melancholy and we get the sense it is about a tragic death as the song builds around the refrain 'white flowers mark the grave'.

Third track 'Synovve' begins with an electric piano motif which wouldn't have sounded out of place on one of Blur's Parklife ballads, for some reason it reminds me loosely of the harpsichord intro to Clover Over Dover but rapidly moves elsewhere when the vocals enter. 'Synovve' is a nordic female forename. The electric piano is an authentic Fender Rhodes style sound which is accompanied by autoharp. The first half feels sunnier than the previous two songs and there are some excellent unexpected, almost bluesy chord changes in the verse. In the second half of the song the lyrics and music becomes darker, colder and more wintry. As they sing “the darkest day of winter” you feel like the sunny love of the beginning of the song has been struck by tragedy.  The next song 'So It Goes' continues with the Fender Rhodes sound – it's a great tone, arpeggiated soft top notes, sounding almost like a xylophone with warm resonant bass keys holding down the bottom end. The song is beautiful and mournful.

'Died Of Love' is Lutine's arrangement of a traditional Lincolnshire folk song often called 'Died For Love' this tells the story of a maiden who tragically lost her virginity to a farmer, fell pregnant by him and then died. Here the lovely vocals are accompanied by sparse piano motifs and harmonium.

'Come Wander' returns to the Rhodes with a deep bass arpeggio and melancholic vocals. 'Come Wander With Me' sounds like a traditional song but it was originally composed for a Twilight Zone episode of the same name in 1964 by Jeff Alexander and Anthony Wilson. The episode is about a rockabilly singer who wanders around the back woods searching for traditional songs! British Sea Power recorded a version of this piece for their soundtrack to the 1934 film 'Man of Aran'. The turnaround in the melody wouldn't sound out of place in a samurai epic film, but Lutine's version is very effective, using only vocal and a Fender Rhodes bass that reminds me loosely Air's Moon Safari album.

'All I Have Is Gold' played on autoharp and, perhaps, the harmonium playing some simple bass notes, is a sweet little song that sounds like it could be as old as time, but, as far as I can gather, is an original composition. 'Sallow Tree' is the first single taken from the album. The musical arrangement here is a little denser, in an album of very sparse, spacious songs the addition of a what sounds like a cello and possibly viola makes this song seem almost busy! For the main part the song is played on piano and auto harp. It's a lovely piece which sums up the duos work nicely.

'Death and the Lady' is another old folk song, like 'Died of Love' this was adapted from a medieval poem which could have been much longer (as long as 30 verses apparently). It follows a conversation with a maiden and Death, a morbid theme which seems to tie the whole record together. I've heard a version of this song on guitar that sounds like a pre-cursor to those melancholic cowboy songs but Lutine have arranged it for droning accordion or harmonium, which makes it sound like a sea shanty with the vocals sang in close harmony as a dual lead.

To The Sea – is the last song on the album. Comprised of simple piano and voice. The soft and high vocals here are very mellifluous, lacking the hard consonants that would make the words easier to discern. I find this is the case quite often on the album, but it has the effect of treating the vocal more like an instrument, concentrating the listeners ear on the melody and timbre. If you like your music beautiful and sad then this album is perfect for you. I'm really looking forward to the album launch on September 26th where they'll be performing these songs in 'St Laurence's, the space where they were recorded which promises to be a very moving evening.

Adam Kidd

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