“It wasn’t so long ago that I was writing about bird gatherings (4 September) to preview Emily Barker’s fine new album, A Dark Murmuration of Words. English ambient-pop artiste, Chloë March, is now getting in on the act with the release of Starlings & Crows, due on 23 October. The album is trailed quite brilliantly by the gloriously sensual single from it, “To a Place”. The song appears inspired by a collision of the natural world and something akin to Alice’s experience through the looking glass. In this case, the conduit is a hole in an old garden wall.
March’s delicate alto glides through the minor modulations of the song effortlessly as she sings of longing for a loved one, of falling into a place of memory and imagination. There is a subtle menace implicit in some of March’s lyrics which counterbalances the beauty of their delivery. Hardly a new girl on the block, the upcoming album will be her fifth in a career spanning 16 years. While we await the full album, an investment in the back catalogue of this gifted, independently-driven artiste is highly recommended.“