Irish singer and harpist Brona McVittie's second album The Man in the Mountains, sounded a momentous record to me from its opening notes and I fell deeper and deeper under its spell as matters proceeded. Pastoral Folk with a slight tinge of the horror of the early seventies, (think The Wicker Man soundtrack), it's a quite entrancing listen start to finish.
Comparisons have been made with Jane Weaver from some quarters and seem to make sense to me, though McVittie is more obviously rooted in Folk than Weaver is. But she takes a similar approach in drawing on early Seventies influences but updating them quite compellingly.
McVittie's rich, trembling voice is her obvious ace card, making the listener feel that they're wading through the stuff of Arthurian legend. But the arrangements are equally textured and evocative. The Man in the Mountains is clearly a deeply researched and thought through record but it doesn't feel forced or opportunistic, so well is everything realised.
One to kick of your shoes and immerse yourself in as you might do to a Sandy Denny or Vashti Bunyan record. This September has been a rich harvest for me this year in terms of utterly wonderful records. The Man in the Mountains is near to the top of the pile, ripe and golden and good enough to eat.
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