7SUMMERS7WINTERS

When Mary came into being after Trude Eidtang (vocals, synthesizer, percussion) left White Willow and joined forces with Christian Paulsen (guitars, programming, synthesizer), wanting to create music inspired by Kate Bush, Björk and Peter Gabriel. I didn't read the press release until after I had been listening to the album, and already had those three artists in mind to put into the review so wasn't surprised when I read it in black and white. Although this was released in 2013 I have only just come across it, which is a shame as there is a great deal here to enjoy. Musically it is mostly electronic, with small amounts of guitar, and all the focus being on the vocals. There is a great deal of reverb within the album, the result being something that is incredibly atmospheric, and Trude's vocals just bring the listener into a wonderful world. The more I played this the more I liked it (apart from the bloody drum machine - I hate those so much!), but the song that took me totally by surprise was John Denver's "Annie's Song". The original must be known by just about anyone my age, as it was all over the place in the Seventies, but here it has been slowed down and stripped back, and taken to a totally different place. This album is only 33 minutes long, but is well worth investigating.