REVIEWS FOR THE GLAMOURY
'A unique and fantastic concept, perfectly executed and realised'
Shirley Collins
Northumberland-based Emily Portman calls this debut "old stories with new skin", a neat way to describe how she recasts antique folk and myth into stunning shapes. Her voice is bright and larkish but her tales are drawn from the darker realms of faerie, where human bones are made into harps and "selkies" shed their seal skins to become human. Her "Sirens", though, wander the streets of modern-day Tyneside, and she likewise furnishes folk melodies like "Two Sisters" with inventive arrangements using twinkling harp, brooding cello and chiming vocal parts. A remarkable and original debut.
Observer
Folk enchantress spins 12 eldritch fairytales
'A bewitching collection from one of the new British folk scene's most beguiling presences. Portman's concertina couples with strings, harp and guitar in seductive arrangements, while her deceptively innocent voice self-harmonises lyrics soaked in folk tales, myths and disturbing dreams (check "Little Longing", a lullaby to a sawdust baby). "Tongue-Tied", "Three Gold Hairs" and "Mossy Coat" draw magical energy from the streets and seascapes of her Newcastle hometown, while the strange dischords of "Stick Stock" are needle pricks against a malevolent stepmother.' **** Rob Young UNCUT.
'New Myths for Old
A powerful contemporary approach to the traditional ballad, from which she fashions a vivid and poetic set of original songs, makes Emily Portman’s album debut an arresting experience. The singer and concertina player was one third of harmony group The Devil’s Interval, and has already established herself as a significant new interpreter of the English folk tradition.
She calls her compositions ‘ new stories with old bones, old stories with new skins’ and the song notes she supplies summersault you into a magical realm of more animal-tyo-human crossovers than a mythologists library. She relocates the sirens of classical myth to modern day Tyneside – with the help of beguilingly close three-part female harmonies – while, on a different song, a woman waiting for a bus sprouts bird feathers. The one traditional ballad here is the darkly magical Two Sisters. In the song, one sister is drowned by another and when her body floats ashore an instrument is fashioned from her bones and blond hair – a harp that plays itself and tells a story of her murder. Now there’s something you don’t see on CSI NY. With lyrical inspirations including Clarrissa Pinkola Estes and Angela Carter The Glamoury leads you into another world that’s rich and strange, haunted by Portman’s lyrical and beautiful voice, and some supple instrumental textures and arrangements from guest musicians including viola player Lucy Farrell, Harpist Rachel Newton, Gabriel Waite on cello and Bellowhead’s fiddler Rachael McShane.' **** Tim Cumming Songlines
‘The Glamoury is a beguiling album, weaving harmony-laden, chant like vocals with beautiful harp playing, all underplayed by droning- double-stopped viola. It’s first impact is as a very pretty slice of neo-folk (Portman write all the songs herself), but a closer listen to the lyrics reveals a dark, other-worldly theme. There is a slightly menacing, sometimes spiritual edge to these songs, and the themes – magic, transformation, death, even cannibalism – remind me more of Grimm’s fairytales than anything else. This darkness draws you into Portman’s fascinating personal work, it lodged itself in my mind and wont leave! Fantastic stuff.’ Sam Wise Acoustic Magazine
From her sublime partnership with Lauren McCormick to the close harmony thrills of The Devil’s Interval to the eerier intrigue of Rubus, Emily Portman finally releases her debut solo album. Given her track record so far you wouldn’t expect a simple collection of jolly songs and here indeed is a darkly engrossing thematic concept usefully explained on the sleeve as “a collection of new songs with old bones, old stories with new skin, drawn from folk tales, ballads, dreams and real life”.
Surrounded by brooding layers of strings involving the likes of Lucy Farrell on viola, Rachel Newton on harp, Gabriel Waite on cello and Rachael McShane on fiddle and cello, Portman embraces the magical elements of folk song and intricately melds them into an impressively challenging and at times quite daring suite of songs tackling unworldly topics.
Galloping along with mounting urgency, Bones & Feathers is a detailed narrative about a woman seemingly going about her daily routine, waiting to catch a bus who suddenly transforms herself into a ‘birdwoman’; Fine Silica hauntingly relates the love of a woman living underwater for the half-human daughter she leaves on dry land; Grey Stone sheds yet more light on the underwater life of the seal woman; and, leaping out of the speakers in a frankly scary blast of vocalised ‘rat-a-tat-tats’, Pretty Skin conveys the inner thoughts of a dead witch. Bouncy poppery-folkery this isn’t. And that’s before we even reach the final trilogy of Sirens – all weirdly mournful harmonies and a disquieting evocation of different worlds colliding – leading into a nimble harp arrangement of one of the most bewitchingly evil ballads of them all, Two Sisters; before closing with the unaccompanied Three Gold Hairs, with its strange theme of death and rebirth.
At the end you feel you either need a lie-down or a session down the pub singing Cum On Feel The Noize (but probably not Martin Carthy’s version), but the ultimate conclusion must be that this is a remarkable work by a singer and writer so totally consumed by folk song and storytelling that she’s moved to interpret and reposition it in such a boldly individual fashion. It’s not light and it’s easy to lose patience with a style that offers only rare glimpses of brightness, but Portman is an accomplished singer and this helps enormously in the assimilation of her complex, rampantly imaginative ideas. An album, certainly that merits major respect.
Colin Irwin fROOTS
'Although this is indeed if we're going to be pedantic about it, Emily Portman's debut album, she wont be a new name to anyone who has been keeping a weather ear upon the folk scene in recent years. Coming to prominence with the precociously talented harmonies of The Devil's Interval and their work with folk royalty Waterson:Carthy before moving on to the impressive arrangements of Rubus, Portman's vocals have been consistently beguiling for more years than you'd expect of one so young.
The revelation on this album, though, is that all save for an appropriately skeletal harp-accompanied 'Two Sisters' are self-penned originals. And what songs they are, growing like ivy from English folk tales and Ballads, with tangling vocal harmonies from Lucy Farrell and Rachel Newton and superb instrumentation from the likes of Rubus cohorts David Newey and Christi Andropolis, and Bellowhead's Rachael McShane.
Like frost on a spider's web, the songs are intricate, beautiful and brittle, entrancing with an undertone of sinister melancholy. The result, as promised by the album's title, is utter enchantment. When Viviane trapped Merlin, I expect her songs sounded something like this. There are many worse ends.' *****
Oz Hardwick Rock & Reel.
Emily Portman's album is a collection of her own songs all based on traditional stories or myths and moulded into something very rare and exciting by Emily's writing and by her voice and musicianship.
'Sirens' for example is based on the classical myths of sirens luring sailors onto the rocks but is set in the streets of modern day Newcastle where the sirens have "wheels instead of wings." 'Tongue Tied' tells the story of the girl who must remain silent and shed no tears for seven years in order to free her brothers who have been turned into birds while 'Fine Silica' is a re-working of the Silkie legend.
Glamoury is a form of magical enchantment and those that are thus afflicted for good or evil can see through into the other world (sometimes called Fairyland). But please don't think there is anything remotely twee about this CD, there are no little people here flitting round the flowers on diaphanous wings, this is the raw stuff of the great ballads ¬ the tunes are as rooted in the tradition as a hawthorn in an old hedge bank and the writing is masterly.
Mike Harding BBC RADIO 2
Emily Portman gets under the skin of the folk imagination in these story-songs. Drawing on ballad, folk-tale and nursery rhyme she draws us into a dream world of ordeals, terrors, transformations and consolations that are both ancient and contemporary. Her playful delivery of the songs, slightly detatched, sometimes almost child-like, heightens their effect, allowing the listener to experience their dark, magical narratives internally. Beautifully arranged throughout - this is a very accomplished record.
Hugh Lupton (Acclaimed Storyteller)
'[Emily Portman's] piquantly harmonised, eerily off-kilter renderings of traditional and original songs confirmed her as a noteworthy budding talent.' Scotsman
Emily’s album is a collection of her own songs all based on traditional stories and myths molded in to something very rare and exciting by her mature writing, subtle arrangements and exceptional use of vocal harmony. This is definitely one of my favourite albums of the year so far.’
Corrina Hewitt on BBC Radio Scotland.
'Previously one third of the award-nominated Devil’s Interval, Emily Portman now branches out
with a solo offering that is one of the most inventive and intriguing first albums for many a
year. Drawing from myth, fable and folk storytelling, she has woven a series of self-
penned songs that create an otherworldly atmosphere without a hint of clichéd feyness,
revealing her as a confident, compelling teller of tales. While her contemporaries often try to mesh
modern musical stylings to traditional material, to reinvent the old songs and tunes to appeal to
their peers and recent cool and trendy folk converts, Emily has come up with a timeless collection, approaching her source material side-on. She brings elements of folk structure, but turns it on its head with strangely moving melodies that do not follow the established rules.
Her clear, unpretentious, vibrato-less vocals, and skillful touches of folk ornamentation soar above
the atmospheric accompaniments. With its unusual tunes, syncopated rhythms and sensitive
arrangements – sometimes sparse, sometimes gorgeously layered with vocal harmonies – the
songs are often hypnotic, totally immersing the listener in a supernatural world.
There is an echo of Lal and Mike Waterson’s timeless and alternative approach to songwriting,
a richness and depth that shows a wide knowledge and understanding of these mystical
stories. With women turning into birds, selkies, witches and more, these are magical and strange
events made real and woven into contemporary life. They are not distant, but exist alongside the
everyday, perhaps simply hidden behind the veil of cynicism of modern living – there a fingertip
away, waiting to be discovered. This culminates in ‘Sirens’, as modern-day life meets with the world
of myth and magic under the streetlights, and broken glass turns to diamonds. A sparkling solo
debut indeed.' Annie Windley EDS
Underpined by fables and folklore, then characterised by the slenderest melodic lines from sumptuously recorded guitar, harp and strings 'The Glamoury' encapsulates the mood of Shirley Collins and Karine Polwart. However, there's also an additional genreless contemporary quality contained in these addictive stories that fans of artists as far flung as Joanna Newsom could appreciate.
Wrapped in Emily Portman's distinctive voice the whole mood it's highly artistic, yet at its heart is a wellspring of very real human emotion: Fabulous 21st century folk!
Spiral Earth
'Portman’s contemporary folk songs draw on balladry and fairytales for this beautiful collection which exists in a plane where fragility and strength are the two chief forces at work. Shades of light and dark coexist among sparse arrangements of harp, viola and strings and the effects are utterly bewitching. And her unshowy, but gently strident voice, will hold you rapt throughout. Just great.' The Crack Magazine
The songs on this highly original debut solo album from the songwriter, singer and concertina player Emily Portman are steeped in folk tale and legend, but not in any twee way. They have a contemporary edge, given an extra shine from the accompanying musicians on fiddle, viola, cello, guitar and additional female vocals. In Bones and Feathers, a story of metamorphosis of bones and feathers to birds, dramatic tension is heightened by the cello and viola, conveying the mystery and magic of this folk tale in an urban setting. Little Longing, described as an anti-lullaby song, has a sadness and yearning about it, with the cello weaving around Portman's pure, unaffected voice. Her interpretation of The Two Sisters, with harp accompaniment, is magnificent.
The Glamoury, meaning a magic that enables vision into other worlds, is certainly an intense listening experience. There are no jaunty choruses to sing along with, but there are insights into a wealth of folk tale and legend, all done with a depth and wisdom that belies Portman's youth. No wonder that her singing has been endorsed by no less than Shirley Collins. Taplas
At present Emily’s name is rightly in the ascendant, for reasons that even a cursory listen to this magnificently beguiling and glamorously scary CD should make abundantly clear. In fact I’m tempted to start this review off provocatively by dubbing Emily “queen of spookyfolk” (a new genre coined by fRoots mag for the Unthanks on its latest cover)!… But no need, for this young folk songstress has already notched up a brilliant CV, from the ranks of the adventurous harmony outfit The Devil’s Interval through to appearances at the Folk Roots, New Routes concerts and warm endorsements from Shirley Collins, and nowadays she’s an equal partner in the trio Rubus.
Here Emily presents on her determinedly personal debut solo record a dozen songs (all but one her own original compositions) which inhabit a genuinely unique landscape, one of spine-chilling magic and strange, often rarefied beauty. She describes the album as “a collection of new songs with old bones: old stories with new skin, drawn from folktales, ballads, dreams and real life”; these are invariably relayed from a female perspective, and couched in tellingly literate imagery while often also incorporating structural elements that hark back to the traditional ballads which formed Emily’s wellspring of creative inspiration. The Glamoury, Emily says, is “an enchantment that may reveal beauty where before there was none; (for) those with the glamoury eye see beyond this world”; and yes, there is something distinctly supernatural at work here, a presence which is probably evoked as much by Emily’s own eerie vocal delivery (at the same time almost defiantly childlike and knowingly prescient) as by the actual content of her darkly mysterious ballad-like creations which display deep and often enigmatic resonances of both the ancient and the contemporary.
Even though she utilises only a comparatively small number of accompanying instruments, and then only in sparse scorings, Emily manages to conjure an excitingly rich and yet piquant and cleanly delineated filigree texture to furnish the mystical cloak of sound in which she envelops her songs. Variously, that involves Lucy Farrell’s voice and viola (“on loan” from the Unthanks tour!), “Shee-ite” Rachel Newton‘s harp and voice, Gabriel Waite and Bellowhead’s Rachael McShane (cellos) and Hinny Pawsey (fiddle), in addition to Emily’s Rubus-mates Christi Andropolis (viola) and David Newey (guitar). Both in terms of music and words, Emily’s songs and their settings are both harshly sensuous and intensely tactile in character, while she has an imaginative yet wholly instinctive approach to matters of phrasing, texture and structure whereby any apparent melodic non-sequiturs, structural irregularities or perceived inconsistencies are quickly seen to be keen responses to the storytelling (for there are no easy answers or tidy resolutions here). You need to keep your wits about you, and on occasion you may also find yourself significantly distracted by the sheer poetry of Emily’s textual adventures… but each individual song is in actuality exquisitely formed and carefully, lovingly textured.
Many of the songs embrace the theme of metamorphosis: Bones And Feathers is a fable of skeletons turned into birds, set to an urgent, nervy guitar rhythm that’s taken up and embellished by a dark splintery viola pizzicato which then picks up the bow and swoops up to the skies in layered vocalisation, whereas Tongue-Tied, a woman’s incantation to free her bewitched bird-formed brothers, naturally transforms itself into a mesmerising vocal round. The sinister fairytale of Stick Stock, a busy and disturbingly insistent nursery-rhyme playground chant sung by a girl who’s been transformed into a dove and baked into pies (don’t ask!), is followed by Little Longing, a gloomy anti-lullaby for an unborn child made of sawdust and sackcloth that Emily remembered from a particularly vivid childhood dream. In a kind of street-life companion-piece to Bones And Feathers, Sirens are heard to wail disturbingly in clashing harmonies from parallel universes, as they are transformed when “broken glass turns to glittering diamonds”, while the acappella Three Gold Hairs is an ostensibly simple tale of rebirth given a disquietingly cryptic, tonally shapeshifting musical progression. Then, of course, transformation (ie. recycling of body parts) figures large in the ballad of Two Sisters (of which Emily turns in a stark yet supremely flexible version with Rachel’s rippling bardic harp for accompaniment). And earlier, two consecutive songs (Fine Silica and Grey Stone) are connected to the Selkie legend, inhabiting and evoking the creatures’ airy yet claustrophobic underwater environment. Magic forms an integral part of every song here, but perhaps the weirdest alchemy of all is of a musical nature, where, on Pretty Skin, Emily gives voice to a witch’s dream in a kind of distorted Portishead-electronica arrangement by Finn McNicholas.
This is a truly extraordinary disc, which at the moment (and after innumerable plays too) still has the most seriously neck-prickling quotient of any I’ve heard since The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughter. It’s not comfortable listening, being uncompromisingly demanding and searching, challenging and stimulating. But it’s also totally engrossing and beguiling, and try as I might, I really can’t dislodge its dark delights from my mind – nor do I ever envisage my wishing to.
David Kidman, Net Rhythms (online music site)
With a BBC Folk Award nomination to her name thanks to her work with The Devil’s Interval, Emily Portman is already a well-known name on the British folk scene. So, it is unsurprising ‘The Glamoury’, her debut solo album, has been widely anticipated across the folk community.
Comprising of 10 self-penned songs and one traditional arrangement, ‘The Glamoury’ more than does justice to Emily’s vocal prowess.
As unlike Shakira’s interpretation as humanly possible, but ‘Bones and Feathers’, the album’s opening track, and ‘She-Wolf’ share a common muse – the transformation of a woman into la loba. Like all of the tracks, ‘Bones and Feathers’ conjures up a tale of mystique, magic and metamorphosis. The former are common themes throughout the album, which delves into fairy tales from countless cultures and countries. And so Emily invites the listener to travel with her to mystical and magical worlds, with her voice as a guide.
If this is not enough, however, a collection of equally shining names are on hand to provide vocal and instrumental harmonies that, while subtle, will envelop you to ease the transition between the fairytale worlds.
One excellent example is ‘Pretty Skin’, which tells of the story of a Hanse l& Gretel-esque witch. Making the most of her haunting voice, the melody is supported by a wealth of different textures and timbres – from the repeated whispers of ‘rat-tat-tat’ (presumably representing the witch’s teeth gnashing in anticipation of her next meal) to the ethereal harmonics courtesy of Rachel McShane’s cello line. The overall effect is a unique take on an age-old story, which has lost none of its bite.
The album returns full-circle with its final track, The Gold Hairs. But unlike ‘Bones and Feathers’ there is no instrumental accompaniment to create atmosphere. Instead Lucy Farrell and Rachel Newton join Emily for a final a capella number.
Beautifully produced and sympathetic to the subject matter, this is a truly stunning debut. But I wouldn’t expect anything less from somebody of Emily Portman’s calibre. Most definitely worth the wait!
Bright Young Folk (online music site)
