Liner notes to White Goddess album.

Drawing its influences from 1960s British electric folk, this collection of new songs from White Goddess, a multi-national group based in Granada, Andalucia, addresses the eternal perplexity of romantic love from the perspective of the spiritual quest. A siren invites a prospective lover to “place your faith into my hands” and promises, “death will be our slave”. Being “broken on the rocks of pain and grief” is heartbreak suffered willingly in pursuit of a higher knowledge. Inevitable fate is contemplated, set in motion from a time “before the sun was born”. Life is a “pagan dance” under the watchful eye of the goddess.

Musically there are echoes of bands like Pentangle and early Fairport Convention, the clear voiced singing of lead vocalist Marie O’Nette reminiscent of Jacqui McShee and Sandy Denny, through perhaps the overall tone is closer to Anne Briggs. Electric guitar breaks from Alberto Avilla Casas recall Jimmy Page’s legendary studio assists on Donovan’s Sunshine Superman, or Richard Thomson on Fairport’s best work. But the collection is grounded in its distinctive genre by the assured acoustic guitar accompaniment throughout from Darren Anderson, who also takes credit for composing the songs.

Anderson maintains the essential folk feel with playing that is varied and sometimes surprising, drawing on jazz and rock influences to enhance and twist the effect. A solid rhythmic underpinning from percussionist Javier Cantudo drives each tune. There is much here to enjoy from the music alone, occasional samples – sounds of the sea, an Indian drone - adding subtle references to the sonic ambience. But what lifts the songs out of routine romantic balladeering is the lyrical intensity. There is an unashamed address of the deeper meaning of life, especially as it’s experienced through the shaking of boundaries the heart feels when confronted by the mysteries of love.

It’s here that the album proves unique. The mystical imagery suggests a line of lyrical descent from the French Symbolist poetic tradition, but it is never too abstract. The earth and the heavens meet in songs that conjure deep nature and “the lord of dance”, but the modern city is very present, streets are wandered and lovers encountered. These are contemporary, urban songs that reference folk music’s deep roots in the rural past. There’s a sense that the genre is being refreshed, rather than simply continued. The elevation of personal suffering to meaningful experience through spiritual insight is the difficult artistic challenge attempted here. White Goddess pull it off.

© Danny Broderick 2019