Violinist and composer Laura Cannell has embarked on her most profound and shadowy exploration of the festive season with her new album, Brightly Shone the Moon. This collection offers a haunting, murky reinterpretation of familiar Christmas carols, delving into the complex interplay of joy and heartache that defines the winter period for many.
A Sonic Journey into Winter's Heart
A veteran of seasonal music, following 2020's Winter Rituals EP with cellist Kate Ellis and 2022's New Christmas Rituals, Cannell's latest work is described as her best and darkest journey yet. The album's title is drawn from a line in Good King Wenceslas, and it opens with the solemn tones of an organ, a direct nod to Cannell's childhood Christmases in the Methodist chapels and churches of Norfolk.
The record immediately establishes its unique atmosphere as Cannell's fiddle quivers around the 16th-century folk melody of O Christmas Tree/O Tannenbaum, creating an effect akin to a carol swirling inside a snowglobe. This is not music designed for festive cheer but for introspection. In her reworking of All Ye Faithful, the familiar pre-chorus passages where choirs typically sing "come let us adore him" become murky, repetitive motifs. Here, love feels stuck and arduous, a powerful sonic reminder of how smothering and strenuous winter can be.
Flickers of Beauty in the Bleakness
Despite its overarching melancholy, moments of delicate beauty emerge throughout the album. Lost in a Merry Christmas features high melodies that flurry around each other prettily before melting together. Bleak Midwinter is imbued with an urgent, icy rush, replacing outright sadness with a frisky kind of hope. Perhaps the warmest moment comes with the apocalyptically titled Angels Falling from the Realms, where flickers of long-forgotten hymns magically appear and disappear within the soundscape.
Brightly Shone the Moon is ultimately an album that carries the listener, hauntingly, through the passing of time. It is not for the party or the tree decorations, but for quiet reflection, with slips of ancient songs lighting the way like Christingles in the dark.
Other Notable Seasonal Releases
Also released this month is Anna Pidgorna's Invented Folksongs (Redshift). This fascinating album is the result of the Ukrainian-Canadian singer's travels to Ukraine to study with traditional music practitioners, before weaving folk idioms into her own avant-garde style. The record ranges from fabulous, feral power on Drown in the Depth to urgent longing in What Else Can I Give Him?.
Released in time for Hanukkah, Michael Winograd Plays Tanz! (Borscht Beat) is a spirited live performance by the virtuoso clarinettist. It celebrates the seminal 1955 klezmer album by Dave Tarras and the Musiker Brothers, which famously fused traditionally Ashkenazi Jewish instrumental music with jazz.
Finally, Winter Wonderband's Joy Illimited (self-released) brings together folk musicians Jennifer Crook, Maclaine Colston, Saul Rose and Beth Porter for a mixed bag of festive tunes. Highlights include takes on Shepherds Are the Cleverest Lads, learned from the Watersons, and Boo Hewerdine's New Year's Eve.
