The Bairns
Uk Release: 2007 EMI / RabbleRouser Music
Europe: 2008 Rough Trade
North America: 2008 Ryko Disc
Australia: 2008 Shock Records
BUY IT HERE:
“The Bairns is a bewitching, dream-like, down-to-earth masterpiece… music as tough as it is gentle, as ancient as it is modern, and as coldly desolate as it is achingly intimate.. a joyous, virtuous and luscious un-folk album – ancient melodies, graphic atmospheres and everyday concerns radically transformed by bloody-minded and discriminating modern sensibilities. If you only buy one folk album this year… Rachel Unthank & The Winterset’s eerie, heart-rending masterpiece The Bairns”
Paul Morley, Observer Music Magazine (Top 50 Albums of the Year, Number 17)
Fearless, peerless and wholeheartedly brave
THE GUARDIAN ****
MOJO MAGAZINE ****
SONGLINES ****
THE SUN ****½
MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS *****
ROCK’NREEL *****
“spine-tingling.. deeply atmospheric.. constantly surprising **** ” Colin Irwin, MOJO FOLK ALBUM OF THE MONTH
“a magical album…a work of towering quality” THE TELEGRAPH »
“If Fairport Convention’s recent revival of their classic Liege and Lief album was a reminder of how English traditional music was radically transformed in the 1960s, then Rachel Unthank shows how the process is still continuing. One of the folk records of the year****” Robin Denselow, THE GUARDIAN »
““A compelling treasure trove.. they grace their songs with equal doses of beauty and wit. ****½” THE SUN »
“Rough edges and shimmering experimental production.. original and moving, the group deserves to prosper” Neil Spencer, THE OBSERVER
“The Bairns is a hugely ambitious and strikingly original.. a startlingly contemporary atmosphere.. theirs is an expansive and panoramic music vision.. quite possibly the folk album of this generation. ***** ” ROCK’N’REEL
“Here’s a second album that consolidates, nay, surpasses, an outstanding debut. The secret lies in the play of contrasts – between misery and playfulness (these songs get to the heart of the feminine condition), between the innocence of Becky and the sassy sensuality of elder sister Rachel, between stark and sophisticated arrangements.
Finally, the Winterset demolish the line between past and present, by mingling ancient laments with idiosyncratic songs by Robert Wyatt and Bonnie Prince Billy, and go beyond tradition to a magical, essentially Geordie place. Breathtaking. ***** ” MANCHESTER EVENING NEWS »
“Rachel Unthank & The Winterset deliver magnificently ****” SONGLINES
“Magnificently original soundscape in this second album from the Northumbrian quartet. Eerie ballads, canny northeast songs and contemporary material, all audacious, challenging and gripping.” BBC FOLK & ACOUSTIC WEBSITE »
“bitingly beautiful and filled with delicate glory..music that’ll keep you company in your deepest reflective moments” PALIMPSEST »
“..a landmark release.. a quietly devastating towering achievement in anyone’s book.. an overpoweringly haunted atmosphere.. Yes, this disc is very, very special indeed.” NET RHYTHMS »
