Songs of separation

"Another of these thematic ensemble affairs where a bunch of people are shut away in a remote location for a week with the brief of coming up with a collection of songs on a certain theme, Songs Of Separation involves ten prominent female singers and musicians (...) examining the topic of parting, be it personal, geographical or ideological ... This album (...) is a prelude to a short tour which culminates at Celtic Connections, and listening to the exquisite close harmonies, delicate arrangements and yearning material, you'd imagine it will be magical ... When you get someone as wonderful as Karine Polwart on board it must be a great temptation just to give her all the songs, let her go on with it and tinker around behind while she weaves her magic. She and Eliza Carthy are certainly the dominant voices and when they sing The Flowers Of The Forest together (...) all resistance is hopeless. Yet the more you get into this the more you realise it's not just the Polwart-Carthy show. From wondrous unaccompanied Gaelic singing to nods at music-hall, old ballads, Americana and a spot of Kate Young weirdness too, full of offbeat handclaps and dark atmospherics, its range stretches far and wide".