This land used to be crossed by a few major rivers of music. When people were looking for sustenance, they knew where to go. There wasn’t a confusion of choices. And, for the most part, the rivers could be trusted to bring quality cargo ashore.
Now everyone has their own little stream. The great old rivers have, for the most part, dried out and that despite the fact that there is so much more water. Water, water everywhere, but rarely a drop worth drinking.
iPlayer Brand image of Adam Walton, photographed in 2014.
In past decades, Chloe Leavers’ music wouldn’t have struggled to make itself heard. It wouldn’t have been in danger of getting beached in a channel too narrow to carry its broad, heart-quickening excellence.
Nowadays it’s a little more difficult for someone who sings quietly, but with grace and with an un-melodramatic heart, to get heard. But these gentle qualities are what make Chloe’s music so precious, and make it deserving of your time.
Her new song, released under her new guise as Sake, is called ‘Almost Never’. It’s very beautiful.
The irony is that Chloe, like so many around her, has been enabled by the levees breaking and the big rivers drying up.
Her music is carried on one of those glittering, multitudinous streams, and I’m here pointing it out, so that you don’t miss it. You can download from www.sakemusic.com.
It’s difficult to pin down direct influences. Anyway, trying to define something in terms of its influences is destined to sell the story short.
The wonder in Chloe’s music is that indefinable quality in her voice that vibrates the atoms in another human’s soul. No amount of comparisons to Pentangle, or The Knife, or Talk Talk, John Martyn, Robert Wyatt or Massive Attack will give you a sense of the true beauty in her music.
Just listen, please do and don’t miss this diamond amongst the sparkles.
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