- Reviewed by Stephen Graham
The most relevant jazz track here is a highly individual version of the Walter Gross and Jack Lawrence standard ‘Tenderly’ sung by Sarah Vaughan in 1947 when the song was new. But singer Seaming To hovers beyond any definable genre and even this fine cover does not really represent this extraordinarily spectral album as much as some of the originals. They have an even eerier but compelling quality and engage both your clue solving instincts intellectually given how unearthly the sound is but also there is a winning personality that comes through. It's ages since I heard Seaming To live - back in 2011 at a frankly frustrating Bishopsgate Institute showing partly because it was only a support slot within a very different project.
This is far better than what I remember. Classical and jazz-influenced you gain a maverick operatic quality on a track like 'Look Away' or an almost fairy story gothic creepiness eased out on 'Brave'. Seaming To dubs in piano, synths and clarinets on the recording with collaborators, often strings players, sizing up the canopy of the sound a little. A collection of stories gathering dust inside - thank goodness the dust has magically sprung to life and how. 'Water Flows' with its wobbly spookiness as the protagonists go sailing is just one delight among many. A world, a galaxy, away from Sarah Vaughan and the 1940s but no less valid for all that. Seaming To, photo: Bandcamp
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