I’ve been a big fan of the Moulettes since I discovered their quirky chamber-folk sound back in 2010 at the late night tents of Secret Garden Party Festival. With their high energy and sensational stage presence, Moulettes always guarantee an audience with smiles from ear to ear and achy bones from all the dancing that is bound to occur.
 
For this particular gig at The Haunt and of course in preparation for the release of their brand new album ‘Constellations’ (see out review here), Moulettes had a few special guests joining them onstage including Emma Gatrill (Xylophone, Harp, vocals, synth, bass clarinet, percussion), Faye Houston (vocals), Laura Hockenhull (vocals), Eliza Jaye (violin, lead guitar, vocals) and Kate Young (Violin) all of whom have featured on ‘Constellations’ (along with many others). This collaboration of various musical talents on stage all at once gave the gig a wonderful and magical atmosphere – indeed much like their new album.
 
However one thing that stood out for me in particular was how refreshing it was to see so many female musicians on stage. The talent (both male and female) that flooded the stage was astounding – which was highlighted in particular by the sheer amount of  awe inspiring instrument swapping. The most changes I counted throughout the gig was those of Emma Gatrill who casually switched instruments about six different times throughout the set – but this was not restricted to Gatrill as Hannah Miller (lead vocals, cello, guitar), Ollie Austin (drums, guitar, glockenspiel, percussion, backing vocals), Ruth Skipper (co-lead vocals, bassoon, autoharp) and Eliza Jaye (violin, lead guitar, backing vocals) were all big advocates in the instrument swapping department! One might have imagined that there would be a lot of silence in between tracks with all of these musical exchanges but it was clear that they had worked hard to perfect the transitions which allowed each track to flow wondrously into each other without interruption.
 
Having been a Moulettes fan for a long time, I was really glad that they included some of my favourite tracks from past releases such as ‘Sing Unto Me’ and ‘Unlock The Doors’ which were clearly very popular with fans as each announcement was met with excited cheers and unanimous ‘whoops’.
 
Two of my favourite tracks of the night had to be ‘Land of The Midnight Sun’ from their new album, which clearly has some traditional Chinese musical influences, as the sound produced with violin, auto harp & cello is reminiscent to that of a ‘Guzheng’ instrument which came across beautifully and left me with goose bumps all over.
 
The other favourite track of mine was an older song from their 2012 album ‘The Bear’s Revenge’ called ‘Songbird’ which brought Laura Hockenhull back to the stage to join Miller, Jaye and Skipper to unite in an almost entirely acapella version of the song which was actually slowed down a lot more than the album version and gave it  more intimate a melancholic tone that consequently left the audience in a state of complete awe.
 
All in all they put on yet another corker of a gig, I defy anyone to leave a Moulettes show without a broad glowing smile and their songs swimming around your head for the rest of the night.
 
Website: moulettes.co.uk