Genre: Contemporary Celtic

01 Heartwood
02 Drift
03 Eurydice
04 Winter
05 Hurricane
06 Light
07 Twilight
08 Children Of Lir
09 The Juniper
10 The Birch's Lament
11 Madron Well

 Last year I had the honour and luck to receive Sora's EP Light. I was captivated by the four songs on that EP. As I said at that time, it was a prelude for the upcoming album. And here it is. Heartwood. Eleven tracks strong, including the four from the Light EP. The packaging is somewhat the same; a cardboard slipcase with a CD, a booklet and a postcard. However, the booklet from Heartwood is way more extended than the one from Light. It features all lyrics, something that always scores points with me. But besides that, the whole package looks excellent. The atmosphere the frontcover paves is continued on the back, the inside and in the booklet. It's a feeling of warmth, connectivity with nature and traditions. It's almost melancholic. And it fits the music.

The opening track showcases immediately why I love this music so much. The instruments are being played gently, while the main focus of each song is Sora's voice. Clean, clear and high. No time is wasted on extensive instrumental parts, even though there are so many being used; violin, viola, cello, harp, mandolin, guitar, bass, piano, percussion. Sora seems to get her inspiration from various places, as apparent from the tracks on this album. 'Eurydice' obviously points to Greek mythology, but 'Children Of Lir' is an Irish legend. 'Madron Well' is a so called "clootie well" and a sacred Celtic place in Cornwall. All of this is adapted to the present day, while retaining a feeling from the days of yore.

'Drift' shows Sora's ability to paint images in your head with just words. It's about (two) continents drifting apart while they were once a whole; Pangaea. It can be interpreted as the Americas (north and south) being apart from Eurasia and Africa, but also as a metaphor for the love between a man and woman. They were once one and in love, but have taken different paths and live separate lives now. With "all these techtonic (sic) plates within our hearts / leaves us divided, we are now worlds apart." These sentences just struck me. The fourth track, 'Winter', has build in an easy way, in terms of refrain/coupet. It's worked out excellent. It's a bittersweet track, and all the string instruments add to the atmosphere perfectly. The same feeling is continued in 'Hurricane', which is the longest track on here with its seven minutes. That's completely filled with singing, mind you. This is a very slow moving track, and so very wonderful.

What else can I do but strongly recommend this album? If you really like female vocals and have a knack for contemporary folk music, then this is an absolute must. Last time I had trouble to put this in a category, but Sora has solved that herself. She simply calls it Contemporary Celtic, and that's exactly what it is.