Nuria Graham - Cyclamen

'Cyclamen' is Catalan singer-songwriter Núria Graham's sixth full album release, yet in this country she remains largely undiscovered. A classically trained guitarist from Barcelona, Graham composes songs with a wistful surreality mixed with gentle fragility, warmth and wit. She has a voice that captures the vivacity of the Mediterranean sun, and infuses it with the gentleness of morning dew. Search for an equivalent, and all I can offer is a coadunation of Kate Bush, Dolores O'Riordan and Cate Le Bon.
 
Eleven songs plot the path from 'Procida' to 'Procida 2', twinned musical bookends that take their inspiration from a tiny island just off the coast of Naples. Second single, 'The Catalyst', is delivered “with my stupid Catalan English”, and provides the keystone to the entire album. It is both a farewell to a departed friend, and the stimulus for a new beginning. Each successive song seems to reflect back here, a blossoming array of moods and emotions, sometimes with wit, as in lead single 'Yes, It's Me, The Goldfish!', sometimes with fear and trepidation ('Disaster in Napoli'), and sometimes with optimism and gentleness ('The Beginning of Things'). And 'Dust Bowl Dreamin' becomes a love song which hopes of new beginnings with its self-deprecating quippery - “I'm singing this song on a sofa. Lover says it sounds a bit like Harry Potter”.
 
Strings, bassoon, harp, double bass, flute and saxophones all contribute to this effusive concoction of folk fable, premonitory dreams and messages from nature. As 'Cyclamen' blooms, it wafts its deliciously exotic fragrance over 2023, together with a burst of brilliant sunshine to chase away the doom and gloom of our English January. An early contender for my Album of the Year?
 
9/10