Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
By moonlight hares were thought to dance, but those that hatch are to be observed as being caught in the alure of love as they become entranced by the sound of Anna Tam and the multi instrumental voice as she brings stories to life, and allows creatures of her imagination to roam free.
Hatching Hares is the melding of traditional British songs given a fresh twist by critically acclaimed musician Anna Tam. Inside these delicate shells lays the moonlight children, those creatures of legends and myths, symbols of femininity, the links to the Pagan ways, the carrier of messages between Gods and humans, and the songs in many ways reflect the associations between the fertile mind and the soul in need of replenishment.
It is to the soul that Anna Tam introduces herself too as the music flows and circles around the listener, at first like whisps, the non-corporeal drama of the forest that rises from the streams and rivers that between trees and the mind, and then like an explosion of passion between lovers, catches fire, and is observed to be the strength of beauty asserting itself proudly and without shame.
Hatching Hares is an album that sets alight the unmatched fire in all who come across it, a set of arrangements that sparkle and sets the moon ablaze, and across stories told through instruments such as the nyckelharpa, the viola da gamba, the hurdy gurdy, cello and piano, those tracks, those seekers of the moonlight and the realm of the hare, are born with praise and ingenuity.
Across tracks such as Lovely Joan, The Snow It Melts The Soonest, Fakenham Fair, A Stitch In Time, the extraordinary When I Was A Little Girl, Bess And Her Spinning Wheel, and Thanksgiving Waltz, Anna Tam leads on with grace, and absolutely enthralling style. The sound is infectious, the musicianship crafted out of marble and set on display in a hallowed hall, for it is there that the Hatching Hares catch the moonlight and showcase the feminine heart at its most alluring.
An album of passion and desire, Hatching Hares is Anna Tam personified.
Anna Tam releases Hatching Hares on June 10th on Tam Records.
Ian D. Hall