Suzannah Espie - Sea of Lights (2025)

It’s a match made in heaven: Suzannah Espie, Liz Stringer, Chris Altmann and Jeff Lang. Such is the crew Espie gathered to record her latest, and unquestionably greatest, Sea Of Lights. And, like all great collaborations, the product is even greater than the sum of its parts.

Recorded to four-track tape in Jeff Lang’s shed, the musicians sat around in a circle in sweltering summer heat and recorded these ten gems in three days. Oh, and Espie happened to be seven months pregnant at the time!

The tone of the record is gorgeous, something to akin to what Gillian Welch and David Rawlings capture sitting toe to toe in the studio; a tone so many try to chase and few come close to. You can almost hear the heavy heat loosening the wires and timbers of the fiddles and guitars and inflecting the voices with weary desperation. Indeed, Espie has exposed a deeper note to her singing, exposing that bruised, soul-baring tone to her voice that rends the listener’s heart and puts her in the company of elite singers.

The songs are contributed mostly Espie, some in collaboration with Charles Jenkins and Van Walker. The exceptions are Acey Monaro’s ‘Raining In Armidale’ and a version of Chris Altman’s ‘Other Side Of The Mountain’, stripping it down to its bare essentials. There are some absolute crackers amidst them. ‘Heart Beating’ is the perfect opening the album, drawing the curtains on a pastoral, old-timey soundscape with no concession to modern expectations. The track blooms as unhurried but inexorable as a sunrise.

‘Bluebird Boots’ and ‘Blue Mountains’ both bare evidence of Jenkins’ craftsmanship, but take on timeless tone in these circumstances and in Espie’s hands Walker’s ‘Into The Light’ becomes a bare country gospel beauty.

I’m looking forward to hear Espie’s take on Sea Of Lights but she must be ecstatic with the results. Recording is such a strange game; you can plan and scheme and prepare, and then a couple of days can change everything.~By Martin Jones