Intricate, entrancing second album... the mix of lullabies, madrigals, mermaids and nightingales casts a powerful spell - 8/10. --Neil Spencer, Uncut, August 2012.
Hatchling is the boldly imaginative second album from Emily Portman, one of the UK folk scene s most beguiling presences (Uncut). Having established a name for herself with her twice BBC Folk Award nominated debut The Glamoury (2010), the richly emotive and often understated rawness of Hatchling presents a blossoming of Emily s intricate songwriting while nodding to her traditional roots.
The darker sounds of myth, magic and antiquity are heard murmuring beneath the surface of an inventive and distinctly contemporary sound. Drawing from lullabies, English broadsides and apple-tree wassails, Hatchling enters a carnivalesque world of fallen angels, and fantastical metamorphosis, set against a backdrop of England s cities, shores and woodlands. Emily s trio (with rising stars Rachel Newton and Lucy Farrell) provides harp and bewitching close-harmonies. Guests include critically acclaimed songwriter Alasdair Roberts, cellist Lucy Deakin (Methera) and guitarist Jonny Kearney (Jonny Kearney & Lucy Farrell).
