Originally released in her native Canada in 2002, it’s taken almost 12 months for the disc to see a UK release, during this period there has been lots of excellent press, and the disc has quietly built up momentum and picked up lots of supporters – thankfully this is a disc well worthy of the attention.
Her vocals are the initial standout; she has a flexible and acrobatic voice, that in places has similarities to Jewel and Sarah MacLachlan, but she still sounds individual and has an overall different feel to both these artists. As the comparison suggests, she’s a singer/songwriter with folk/pop leanings, but is by no means a lightweight – she’s a talented instrumentalist; the songs are either acoustic guitar or piano based augmented by some wonderful backing musicians and the superbly discreet production.
She’s equally effective on simple acoustic guitar folk ballads (‘Cherry Road’), as she is with upbeat radio friendly tracks (‘Claudia’), both of these stand out as favourites, but there are many other really strong songs amongst the 13 tracks.
This is a striking disc, melodically strong which makes it immediately rewarding, but it’s also edgy and intelligent enough to warrant ‘serious’ listening. Martina is destined for more coverage and praise in the UK press over the coming months, and could well be an artist who achieves real commercial success – here’s a chance to get on board early….

£13.49