Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

For a taste of the ethereal, the subtle and gentle tones of a woman in harmony with her music and seeming comfortable with her place at the start of what hopefully is a long and industrious career, listeners could do worse than take in Shannen Bamford’s E.P. Paper Planes in which the young woman gives an absolute corking display of her talent.

The E.P. has become the de rigour of getting a young musician’s art out there without having to confine themselves too tightly to the rigidity and constricting emotional turmoil that recording a full blown album can do when first setting out on what can be at times a long lonely path.

The four tracks that Shannen Bamford performs on this effectively arranged C.D. have the ability to take the listener exactly to the train of thought that she has decided to drive down, to grab the listeners hand and tell them to enjoy the country roads, the scenery of which her voice describes with some rather placed words and agreeable music supplied by the session players as well as Shannen’s own gentleness on the acoustic guitar and her deftness on the piano for the two tracks left Behind and Hide.

When she isn’t performing the piano, Sy Swain, a dynamic addition to the fold on Control and Fallen keep the enjoyment flowing as if the continuous torrent of water that gracefully falls over Niagara had been turned somehow into champagne. The added heartbeat though comes from the strings supplied by Stephanie E. Kearney and in a city that has come to reflect the growing fondness of the musical delight she is one of those leading the way, Stephanie E. Kearley shows that the talent pool is seemingly endless, an enchanting prospect for lovers of the strings and a compliment to Shannen Bamford’s obvious aptitude and enthusiastic flair.

Paper Planes is a delightful E.P. by Shannen Bamford which bodes well for her future.

Ian D. Hall