Rachel Sermanni - Under Mountains

Rachel Sermanni has become such a well-loved figure on the live map in recent years that this debut LP feels overdue, despite the fact that the Carrbridge singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is barely in her 20s. Possessed of a striking, expressive voice, and a range that sweeps like the mountains she serenades, Sermanni’s classic, folksy songwriting aligns her muse with childhood favourites, Eva Cassidy and Carole King.

Under Mountains works best when it inhabits its titles – the skeletal pizzicato of orchestral psalm ‘Bones’; the loved-up lilt of ‘Waltz’; the shadowy chamber-chorale of ‘The Fog’. This is a formidably assured debut: full of life, and landscape, and promise.