You Are Wolf is the alt-folk project of award-winning composer and vocalist Kerry Andrew. Keld is the follow-up to her 2014 debut Hawk To The Hunting Gone, a record that explored British birds and folklore. Now working as a trio with multi-instrumentalist Sam Hall and percussionist Peter Ashwell, Keld - an old Northern English word meaning “the deep, still, smooth part of a river” – is an album that explores and develops the theme of freshwater...

I'm not the greatest fan of Folk music. When it's done well it's enjoyable, but when it leans on too many of the genre's cliches it becomes real old, real quick. Sad to say Keld opens with a song that's about as cliched as they come.

While Kerry Andrew has a beautiful voice, it's sad to hear it wasted, which is how I viewed the majority of the album. If you're a fan of old fashioned folk then I'm sure you'll find plenty here to champion, but personally it just left me cold.

The album includes traditional songs about waterfall banshees, killer female water sprites, drowning boys and powerful witches. Original songs are inspired by wild swimming, vengeful rivers, nymphs and naiads, and even an Anglo-Saxon charm.

Sadly, for me, it just felt a little too twee and a little too out of date.

3

Nick Smithson