Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

The tentative dip into the ethereal can become all consuming, it tempts you in to its misty-like waters, and then before you realise the commitment you have made, it sweeps over your emotions, it pulls you under the waves and then as the beat kicks it, it gives you the signal that you can breathe in the atmosphere created.

A tentative dip is all an artist can hope for, but in some circumstances that dip soon takes on the fullness of a tide in which to ride the scree and immerse yourself between its soft tone and hard edge. The point where the sea meets the sky can only be broken by the island in between.

It is in This Island that creativity merges, the haunting, instantly recognisable sound and vocals of Rachael Dunn, the rhythm, producing and soundscapes of Kerosene and the inclusion of additional production by the renowned Danny Saber, the island offering another fixed point in which to place your mind, that of the cosmic journey and Into Stars.

Instantly recognisable the sound may be, however the six-strong song E.P. offers a larger canvas in which to reflect upon, the colours vibrant, the scene a mixture of Heaven and Earth, the weaved song offering shelter through the atmosphere of the electronic hand that guides, and in the tracks Signs, Lights Went Out, Feel The Sun, Safe Enough and the E.P. title track Into Stars, what the listener receives is a justified sense of redemption, a reclaiming of the skies above and our place within in the Universe. It is after all, not ours to consider the blackness of inevitability that comes with the seas or the heavens, but instead the brightness that hope provides in those places; our dark times given a new meaning when we grasp the light in between.

Imagination is a gift, used wisely it opens up the frontiers to where our dreams can mingle freely with those stars. A set of songs that navigate the mind as old sailors used to do when lost at sea, to find a way back home.

Ian D. Hall