Cinder Well: Cadence – Liminal songs caught between Co Clare and California

Liminality is one of the most fruitful of states, at once somewhere and nowhere, and Amelia Baker, aka Cinder Well, has managed to mine it for her latest record. Written “in a process of getting unstuck”, and caught between Co Clare and California, different landscapes, traditions and experiences of isolation and connection, Baker’s experimental folk project walks an interesting tightrope, actively searching for ground – or, perhaps, more towards a sense of peace.

Two Heads, Grey Mare is a case in point. It’s a shape-shifting song about selkies, or seals that turn human on land, that has a hazy kind of beauty, meditating on duality, as well as referencing the sea, one of Baker’s greatest loves and recurrent images. Overgrown is a delicate gem, benefiting from considered, elevating strings (consistently engaging throughout the record) from Lankum’s Cormac Mac Diarmada, and there is a lovely lilt to Returning, and the stark Well on Fire, a song about resilience.

The pleasing timbre of Baker’s voice (which brings to mind July Flame-era Laura Veirs) anchors this album, interrogating and illuminating, bringing various colours – such as the moodiness of the title song, which sounds like Mazzy Star crashing into traditional music, complemented by the atmospheric Crow. Gone the Holding, a fresh take on tradition, is both timely and apposite, with the piano-led I Will Close in the Moonlight an affecting and elegant parting glass.