Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Whilst we are all unique, we must at some point agree to join forces in a way that brings out the very best in our ability, in our vision, and to bring something new to the public’s attention, a sign that union is not only welcome but required to attain a new balance in the world.
To place together three of the most vibrant female voices to have come to the attention of the British music fans in many years is an undertaking of immense value and dedication, and yet in the 2024 album Flowers the attention to the detail of the song and the overall project is one that feels absolutely of ease, one in which union is an alliance of differing cultures which highlights the various degrees to which folk music can be viewed across Europe.
The three musicians and vocal dynamites, Odette Michell, Karen Pfeiffer, and Daria Kulesh bring a veritable florist arrangement, a display of warmth, colour, and fragrant elegance to the sound of the respective instruments and musical observations, whilst all the time evoking an image reminiscent of the photograph of 17-year-old Jan Rose Kasmir as she, and thousands of others protested the Vietnam war in Washington D.C. in 1967. A sound of peace wrapped around the arsenal of tradition and unfazed by the stares of those with damnation in their eyes.
Joined by Jason Emberton, Katrina Davies, Phil Beer, Johnny Dyer, and Marina Osman, Michell, Pfeiffer, and Kulesh bring songs and ballad like reciprocations of love to the fore with elegance, and in the opener My Love’s In Germany, Peatbog Soldiers, Lady Margaret, The Cossack’s Bride, Where Have All The Flowers Gone, and the Boris Fomin composed but given English lyrics by Gene Raskin, and made famous world-wide by Mary Hopkins in the summer of 1968, what comes to pass is a series of inspired, vibrant and pleasurable scenes of empowerment from the feminine perspective, and a message of unity in adversity.
A wonderfully enlightening and pinpoint display of emotionally fierce propositions which capture a modern viewpoint accurately. Flowers in full bloom never fail to make you feel love.
Ian D. Hall