"A veteran explorer of the season (in 2020's sparkling Winter Rituals EP with cellist Kate Ellis, and 2022's starker New Christmas Rituals, with amplified fiddle-playing from Andre Bosman), Laura Cannell sets out on her best and darkest journey yet here, exploring the time of year when, as she writes on the liner notes, joy and heartache try to exist together."
"The artwork for Laura Cannell's Brightly Shone the Moon Named after the line in Good King Wenceslas before the cruel frosts arrive, Brightly Shone the Moon begins at the organ a nod to Cannell's childhood Christmases in the Methodist chapels and churches of Norfolk. Cannell's fiddle then quivers around the 16th-century folk melody of O Christmas Tree/O Tannenbaum, as if the carol is swirling in a snowglobe, trying to settle in memory."
Brightly Shone the Moon frames traditional carols within an uncanny, wintry atmosphere that balances joy and heartache. The album opens with organ nods to Norfolk Methodist childhood chapel Christmases, while fiddle ornamentations hover around 16th-century melodies like O Christmas Tree/O Tannenbaum. All Ye Faithful unfolds in murky, repetitive pre-chorus fragments where love feels buried and strenuous. Lost in a Merry Christmas offers high, flurrying melodies that coalesce sweetly. Bleak Midwinter injects an urgent, icy momentum that shifts melancholy toward a spirited hope. Angels Falling from the Realms glows warmly with fleeting hymn fragments, making the record a haunting seasonal journey rather than festive decoration.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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