Hunter

Locked down doesn’t mean imaginations are locked up. In Hunter, song inspiration is global, despite being set down and sung out in a Norwich cellar. Finnish photography, an Indonesian lamplighter, and Irish and Artic migration prove the starting points for these original songs, but the common link, it seems, is environmental wonder; lockdown provided time and space for this duo, usually two-thirds of a trio, to transform fascinating found facts into artful stories that shine a light on our relationship with nature.

This is a partnership raised on a diet of traditional music, as compelling choruses come with inseparable harmonies, such as future folk-club favourite, ‘The Fox Song’, while instrumental textures remain simple: robust fiddle daring melodies onward flanked by driving guitar or banjo.

One traditional song, ‘My Flower, My Companion and Me’, makes it on to the album, but neatly slotted in at the halfway mark, it could be mistaken for another original – or its compatriots as traditional – such is the consistency of tone and execution. Hunter may have been conceived behind closed doors, but as the duo prepare for a return to live performance, audiences will be delighted to be let in on the secret.