Album Notes

Independent British Songstress Chloë March spent three years crafting her album ‘Divining’, released on her own label Powderkeg Records in November 2008. In 2005 she was singing background vocals and playing keyboards for the band Cousteau. When the tours came to an end Chloë already had half of her album written and ready to record but no budget for studio time. Instead, she invested in recording software and spent the next three years recording, arranging and producing the twelve songs that make up ‘Divining’.

An album inspired by water, symbolic and poetic, ‘Divining’ interweaves piano, marimbas, harp, strings and shimmering beats with french horn, found sounds of paper, glass, windchimes and Chloë’s beautiful, gentle and soaring vocals. An intense attention to detail, intricate multi-tracking, layers of vocal harmonies, gorgeous key-shifts and vivid poetic lyrics make up a lovingly-crafted and beguiling album, with a melancholy, haunting emotional undertow.

The album journeys through captivating soundscapes of soft summer rain, sensuous drowning Venice, dark symbolic rivers of loss and hope, nostalgic sunlit reveries, tales of sea angels, a sadistic sculptor, a lament for Anne Boleyn, melting ice-dryads and one earthy resentful wolf.

‘Songwriter Chloë March has a command of the keyboard more reminiscent of Kate Bush, Tori Amos or Nina Simone’ Tom Robinson BBC6 Music Radio

‘Electronic dreampop with dashes of jazz and artsong. One woman band March crafts an ethereal song cycle based around water imagery, using the intricate minimalism of Steve Reich, layers of sparkling keyboards and her deep, sensual alto. Ms. March is a more pastoral Kate Bush. It's the sort of music that would accompany a movie version of Wuthering Heights (as directed by Peter Greenaway)' www.thenewgay.net

'Wow, this is a beautiful record. March has a voice that blends perfectly with the lush arrangements and intricate piano tinkling. It can be soft almost whispery, and also full and clear. There is quite a lot going on here musically...I really enjoy songs that incorporate many layers and instruments (if paper is an instrument, and heck, why not?) and this is a perfect example of this method done right.... Seeing as this whole album was inspired by water, it’s no surprise that this is perfect for those cold, rainy days spend under a blanket with tea and a book (and if you’re lucky a dog or cat curled at your feet.) Amy Lotsberg www.blog.collectedsounds.com

'...a mesmerizing voice and artfully filtered sounds.” www.juliansflight.com

Chloë’s distinctive songwriting style springs from eclectic influences. Her background was steeped in classical music. Daughter of a pianist mother and trumpeter father she started to play piano aged four and later on developed a passion for songwriting and composing. Chloë has written music for Theatre and Dance companies and has built on a talent for composing evocative and atmospheric soundworlds. Her music is influenced by electronica, jazz and a love of artists and composers such as Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Kate Bush, the pet shop boys, Steve Reich, Imogen Heap, Benjamin Britten and Jane Siberry. Vocally she has been compared to Elizabeth Fraser and Vashti Bunyan – with a purity in her high register and an honest fragility in the lower. Added to this mix is a deep connection to the British landscape, a talent for imaginative lyrical imagery and an ear for captivating melody.

Absorbing and ambitious, ‘Divining’ is an assured and beautiful album from an original artist of great integrity and imagination.