This four track 3? disc may have only been released as a limited bonus disc with Directing Hand?s recent ?What Put the Blood? vinyl, but it?s deserving of special attention. As half of the aforementioned Directing Hand (alongside free drummer and vocalist Alex Neilson), multi-instrumentalist Lavinia Blackwall is doing her part to blur the lines between the urge for unfettered expression and the energising of the traditional folk form. On this solo disc, she tenders two melancholy traditional English folk songs as well as two original pieces.

As a balance to Directing Hand?s improv spirit, her path here seems to be more about the crafting, and telling, of song. Where some classical singers can retain a tone of frost around their vocal, Blackwall?s soprano vocal gives a clarity to the notes and words that?s gilded in melancholy. With the music forming a delicacy around her voice, the interleaving clock rhythm of the harp and the gentle guitar put skin on the lyrics of ?Maid in the Moor?. It feels like a pretty straight telling of the traditional song, even with the addition of Blackwall?s original music. ?The Cuckoo? on the other hand, even with its traditional lyric about an inconstant lover, sounds like a newly written original piece. Stripped to a lone voice and abandoned but steady piano, the songs feels at home as a 2007 composition. This is the exactly the type of leap that Directing Hand have been steadily making their own, albeit in a slightly different form. Where their improv work has used the interweaving of tradional melodies and sounds into layered emissions, Blackwall places the song firmly in the relevant present removing any signs of possible age from the song ? the pain just as valid today as it was when first written.

Her two original tracks, ?Green Planet? and ?Cave of Cernunnos?, make use of organ work faintly reminiscent of the kind of human pop of a gentler Stereolab. The style here is of a kind of well-constructed vintage very-lyrical and very melodic ? like Current 93?s more beautiful Tibet/Cashmore compositions. Boasting a gorgeous and subtle played early-springtime melody ?Greenn Planet? is a perfect moment, an instantly enchanting song and a fine closing moment for this solo release. 9/10 -- Scott McKeating (21 April, 2008)