BROTHER SEA – EP REVIEW


Brother Sea – Brother Sea EP 
Brother Sea

Release Date: Out Now

If you’re looking for a Westcountry folk supergroup with a fine line in chunky knitwear and nautically themed songs then you can cease your search, squire. Brother Sea are comprised of the excellent Dartington duo Harbottle & Jonas along with Kris Lannen, Richard Trethewey and Annie Baylis, and together they make beautiful music, as evidenced by this, their debut EP. Opening up with ‘All as One’, the collective set about creating a fireside tone which draws you in to hear their tales of adventure and togetherness delivered through gorgeously woven tight vocal harmonies. ‘Curious Shore’ plucks slowly in to life like Bagpuss waking up before an early morning violin dances in through the curtains spreading warmth across the room and those sumptuous vocals breathe life in to a previously sedentary scene.

Halfway through the EP we get treated to ‘Haywood’, a song full of sprightly energy and lilting violin melodies that make you want to set out for the new world with nothing but a knapsack and a dream. This is the music of departure, adventure and new beginnings, sweeping you away with a sense of boldness and innocence that makes you feel ten years younger just by listening. ‘Triskele’ comes calling out from the shoreline, beckoning lost sailors back home with peerless vocal harmonies augmented by a delicate array dancing strings. The EP reaches its denouement with ‘Oll’ Vel Onen’, a song that swells with romance and emotion musically speaking although I could be way off the mark lyrically as it’s entirely in Cornish and I don’t understand a word despite living in the county. Brother Sea are the perfect soundtrack to windswept autumnal days and rapidly closing in evenings so get yourself some and pull on your chunkiest knitwear.