MrJelly
Sparse arrangements that really let the character of instrument/voice shine beautifully. For me its mixed perfectly. Melanchoic and heavy but strangely meditative. A unique album that I'm very pleased to have found.
Favorite track: Fallen.
vinyleddie
Absolutely love the stillness of this record. Tremendous melodies performed perfectly. I struggle to explain this when I tell folks about it. It has a doom, folky feel sprinkled with subdued bluegrass. I don't know. Just love the record
Cinder Well is at the vanguard of a different kind of transatlantic folk revival, one forged amidst the uncertainty of a global pandemic. However, Irish-based songwriter Amelia Baker’s music isn’t nihilistic; instead, it strips traditional forms to their bones, creating a meditative, trance-like space for sonic healing. The sparse soundscapes and haunting stillnesses of her new album 'No Summer' (coming July 24 on Free Dirt Records) are not meant to be paens to loneliness. Rather, Baker was inspired by the rich musical connectivity of the pub scene in Ireland, and her move from California to County Clare to study traditional music of the region. A member of anarchist folk project Blackbird Raum, Baker’s time on the circuit with Irish trad-punk group Lankum eventually led her to a small settlement in County Clare, and to the rich dissonance of her music as Cinder Well, a dissonance caught between worlds and histories. Recorded by Nich Wilbur (Black Belt Eagle Scout, Angel Olsen), the original songs on 'No Summer' boldly rub shoulders with careful reworkings of traditional Appalachian sources. Baker’s songs parse these transatlantic traditions, and throughout, her remarkable voice cuts to the bone like some ghostly ballad singer bound to sing these words from here to eternity. From the eerily prophetic title track—which presaged a season of canceled shows—to “Our Lady’s”’s imagined stories of spectral abandoned asylum residents, No Summer is as haunting as it is connected, as dark as it is sacred, a kind of ritual healing that’s existed through the ages.
credits
released July 24, 2020
Produced by Amelia Baker
Recorded, mixed and mastered by Nich Wilbur at The Unknown in Anacortes, Washington
Photos by Jim Ghedi and Amelia Baker
Design by Dan MacDonald Studios
Amelia Baker - vocals, guitar, organ, and fiddle on track 7
Marit Schmidt - viola and vocals
Mae Kessler - violin and vocals
All songs written by Amelia Baker (ASCAP) except “Wandering Boy,” “The Cuckoo,” and “Queen of the Earth, Child of the Skies,” which are traditional.
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