Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Folk tales have immense power, they somehow have a way of burrowing below the skin and becoming part of the fabric of the inner workings of the mind. They nestle at the heart of worry, of being something that somehow Humanity is susceptible to other worldly influences and transformation, the trick of the fairy folk is the way they can steal a baby and leave one of their own in its place causes suspicion and distrust. Whether in the Cornish tradition of Mên-an-Tol or other Gaelic influences, the Changeling is something that captures the fertile imagination.

For Rachel Newton the Changeling is a thing of beauty, a phenomenon in which to celebrate the splendour of the faerie tale and the songs she has placed before the public for her latest solo album away from the luminosity of her art with The Shee, The Furrow Collective or session work with the extraordinary Karine Polwart certainly frame the thought of holding some part of Humanity’s ancient psyche and link to the unseen world. A world which perhaps gets ignored and forgotten the more as a species we move towards globalisation and the constant pursuit of reaching for something intangible and perhaps ultimately dangerous.

Rachel Newton has produced something in which the tangible holds dear and is somehow emotionally stirring, tender and in parts lyrically heartbreaking but also at all times a link to the past. Like watching a young child grasp the thought behind stories such as Sir Gawain and the Green Knight or the thrill of seeing them at least attempt to read Beowulf, so it is heartening as a person of an older disposition to immerse themselves into alleged childhood reasoning when reading James Herbert’s Once Upon A Time or enjoying this piece of art by Rachel Newton.

With some truly incredible harp, viola and vocals by Rachel Newton, cello by Su-a Lee, percussion by Mattie Foulds and a powerful spoken performance by Adam Holmes on The Fairy Man, Changeling is as close to unique as you could ask for. Songs such as Queen Of Elfan’s Nourice, When I’m Gone, Up The Lum and the aforementioned The Fairy Man are enjoyable and edifying and lift the spirits of even the most gloomiest of moods.

Changeling is an album in which the work is impossible to ignore and one in which holds nature and nurture at its heart, a true Gaelic delight.

Ian D. Hall