Beautifully pagan in essence, 'Nightjar' is the debut solo album from Liz Overs. At times eerie, spectral, it is also utterly feminine in nature. Opening with the beautiful 'Prayer to the Year', a sense of the seasons turning and changing, and the patterns of the natural world – out with the old, in with the new.
‘Nightjar’ will take you places. It will take you into the dark, into the light, as if on some strange shamanic journey through the shadows of night.
‘A tangle of word and melody – alive with shimmering patterns of a flowing tide,’ ‘Nightjar’ tells stories – of fairy charms and bad girls, of cruel sisters and dark alleys.
Personally I love this type of vibe, like ancient oaks and echoes of long-ago folk tales – where nature infiltrates the creative process. Liz Overs weaves stories of childhood rivalries, of fair maidens and winged witches. The charms and dangers of the natural world speak – in songs such as ‘Snow Moon’, ‘Yellow Horned Popp’, ‘Honeysuckle on the Vine’ and ‘Nightjar’ – like sneaking through the brambles and briar, pausing to take in the mystery of it all.
‘Nightjar’ is a Liz Overs solo album – made alongside the Sussex coast with the help of Neill McColl (acoustic and electric guitar, Ebow, marxophone, psaltery, vocals), Ben Nicholls (double bass, banjo, concertina) and David Tomlins (acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin) – and the spoken / whispering by the Binnie Sisters. It took a few listens all the way through for it to really seep in to my soul – and the more I listened the more intense the experience – like falling back in time. All the elements are there – earth, air, fire and salt water.
It’s not surprising then to read that from 2018, Liz has hosted a radio show covering the music, folklore and social history of Sussex.
One reviewer used the word ‘intoxicating’ – I’d go for beguiling, enchanting, esoteric.