Young Night Thought

Kirsty Law is a singer-songwriter from the Scottish Borders who has a Folk and Traditional Music degree from Newcastle University. She released her first album, Shift, in 2014 going on to appear at Celtic Connections and gather praise from her fellow Borders dweller, Karine Polwart, who contributes gentle vocals to one track, ‘Underneath the Sycamore’.

Law has also gathered the able instrumental talents of harpist Esther Swift and fiddler Catriona Price (who make up the duo Twelfth Day), drummer Owen Curtis Williams, bassist Ben Seal and Jarlath Henderson, who adds whistle and vocals, in order to realise these ten songs that draw on the Scottish tradition and use both the Scots language and English to create a rhythmical, often otherworldly soundscape. Pop and prog-rock influences and a liking for creating chant-like figures (as on the querulous opening track, ‘The Fairy Boy’) also feature as Law weaves phrases from traditional songs into her work. ‘The Lovers’ Tryst’ makes effective use of influences from evensong, with ‘Snaw Wreaths in Thaw’ takes the poem ‘Land o’ the Leal’ by Lady Carolina Nairne into the realms of electro-acoustic ambience.