Sally Anne Morgan

Few records sound as in tune with the natural world as those of Sally Anne Morgan. Meditative, contemplative, and serene, her solo recordings have furthered themes explored in her time with both Black Twig Pickers and in House and Land, her duo with Sarah Louise. Second Circle The Horizon deepens the natural connection that was fostered on her last album, Carrying, bridging Appalachian folk with the edges of the psych-folk fray, swirling around the listener like secular hymns. The sounds of Morgan’s garden seep in like the shadows of Jewelled Antler. The fiddles gain friction and the lines between modal and magical begin to blur. The circular motions of her pieces entrance the listener, drawing them deep into the green hues and verdant scents of the environment that wrought their weight. It’s nearly impossible to hear Second Circle and not feel, smell, or hear, some remnant of the Earth that once reverberated in the same spaces she uncovers.

Morgan coaxes something out of the soil. She sets time to the buzz of crickets and spring peepers. She extracts a potency from the air around her and imbues it into the saw and hum of her strings. There’s always been something communal and inherently human about The Black Twig Pickers, a feeling of connection between people gathered in joy and sorrow. But, on her own, Morgan has forged the same strong bonds with solitude; albums of ache, both cherished and chafed. As the skies weep and the wood sighs, so do Morgan’s songs. As the breezes soothe and the sun settles, so do her moments of rapture and revelry. It’s been building in her solo work for years, but with Second Circle The Horizon, Morgan has tapped into something sublime.

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