Firefly Music

Here’s an album that brings together again former Karnataka personnel Rachel Cohen (vocals) and Jonathan Edwards (keyboards) along with Tim Hamill and several guest appearance including the vocal talents of Steve Balsamo. The songs are co-writes by Rachel and Jon with a cover of Richard Thompson’s Ghosts In The Wind added to the mix. Ethereal is a word that describes much of the work of Rachel Cohen, a voice that can captivate the listener, and here she doesn’t let us down yet again. I am guessing there is some element of past experience in the lyrical contact while the music is a perfect bed for those lyrics. The folky, sometimes smooth jazz sounds are given an extra dimension by the injection of trumpet and even flugelhorn on ‘Know You Now’ and only when the album gets to the penultimate track do the band rock out a touch on the excellent ‘Monster’. All in all fans of Karnataka, The Reasoning etc. won’t be disappointed with this:- great vocals, lyrics and musicianship.     Martin Hudson