Album: Tess, Magpie (Vintage Voice)

Tess is a chap from Kent. Make of that what you will.

Certainly, Tess is a soul in flight from the horrors of the peopled world. This is not so much fugitive music as music expressing a desire to get away, in a style that allows Tess to conceive that the late Nick Drake might be accompanying his heavy tread. "Why keep me standing here/ Alone and afraid," he wails at the start, and then stays in the groove. Rich string arrangements by producer Howard Gott keep the listening ear engaged.