Other Reviews

18/07/2009

In The Shadow Of Mountains

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Bella Hardy

Bella Hardy's second album, In The Shadow Of Mountains is a masterclass in melancholic sensuality, it reveals Bella as a gifted songwriter as well as confirming her as one of the best vocalists on the British folk circuit.

For many of her own songs Bella draws on her upbringing in the Hope Valley of the Derbyshire Peak District for the themes and characters. The lives of the families that have owned the fields for generations, the names of the gritstone outcrops and the brooks that cut between them all feature in the songs. From Cooper's fields to Broadlee Bank the valley is all here. Even in songs that have nothing to do with this location hills seem to loom large, 'when the sea becomes mountains' in 'The Trawlerman's Wife' or the shadow cast in Sylvie's heart in 'Sylvie Sovay'.

Bella has brought a fine set of friends to play on the album, Corrina Hewat's harp and Anna Massie's guitar in particular, and of course it wouldn't be complete without the concertina of Chris Sherburn.

Stripping a song to its bare beauty seems second nature for Bella, as if its truth can only shine when it has been exposed to the cold mountain air. She uses this policy to sparkling effect on the production making this album a step forward from her first, Night Visiting, which was itself a stunning debut album. The arrangements on her own and the trad songs are an object lesson in less-is-more, In The Shadow Of Mountains has the stark beauty of an early winters morning.

Iain Hazlewood

PROFILE - Including video interview with Bella talking about the new album