Description:	CD on Autumn Ferment
	Format:	CD
	Genre(s):	Singer-Songwriter
	Label:	Autumn Ferment
	Price:	£8.19
	Availability:	In stock. Dispatched in 1 working day.

4
...according to our Business Lady on 20 August 2009.

'Diving Down' is the debut album from multi-instrumantalist/singer/songwriter Gemma Williams Woodpecker Wooliams. Taking retreat in an 800 year old cottage below a castle in Devonshire Williams has crafted a album of wondrous traditional folk and magical sea shanty's. Williams vocal is both beautiful and haunting where required but it's the balanced mix of chimes, bells, harps and dulcimers that give it a timeless quality that belongs to ancient folklore. Easily comparable to Joanna Newsom, Kate Bush and Coco Rosie at her most whimsical, 'Diving down' bridges the boundary between traditional folk and experimental pop that has been effortlessly archived by the likes of Bat for Lashes. A beautifully impressive collection of songs from an emerging songwriting talent with a great voice.

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What their label says...

A resident of Brighton, a keeper of bees, a watcher of badgers, a lover of Russian Dolls and a practicing shaman, Gemma took to music after her study as a midwife had to be put on hold after a series of debilitating seizures threatened her health. A move to the Devonshire countryside to revitalize was called for and Woodpecker Wooliams hatched. After a live slot on BBC radio Devon and airplay courtesy of Tom Robinson, the Merry Woodpecker is now quickly working her way around Brighton and London's venues and has several festival dates lined up this summer.

Diving Down is the beautiful debut full length album from Brighton based multi instrumentalist Gemma Williams' Woodpecker Wooliams. Recorded in an 800 year old cottage below a Devonshire castle, it is an album of magic and of yarn, where you can still hear the spit and crackle of the fire and possibly some whispers from the ancient cottage walls. The album is a fermentation of harps and strings of bells, of chimes and whistles, blown reeds and dulcet tones all of which are cast alive by the Merry Woodpecker's vocal of stark beauty, sweet in tone with an edge of morose.

At times a traditionally inspired folk thread runs through the album, tales such as the beautifully haunting and spiritually imbued sea shanty 'Diving Down' and the primordial dawning, raga like 'Out Walking' are both delivered with the same air of cautionary tale that 'Liege & Lief' era Sandy Denny once regaled. Hobby Horse like bells and electronic drones on tracks like 'In Your Mouth' and 'Put a bird' bring a more modern folk bent to the album with shamanistic trance like undertones and intensities coupled with an occult presence like that of a 1970's film soundtrack. Comparisons to another pixie like plucker of harp strings and purveyor of magic, Joanna Newsom, can be made (there's even a little Kate Bush high end in there too), but 'Diving Down' delivers itself as a truly unique recording, one of depth and intrigue, successfully bridging the ever decreasing gap between experimental, genre splitting modernity and solid, time old folk lore.