Rachel Sermanni - Dreamer Awake (2023) [Hi-Res]

'Dreamer Awake' is the fifth album from Rachel Sermanni, her first for Navigator Records (Katherine Priddy, Kitty Macfarlane, Sam Kelly & The Lost Boys, Bellowhead). Hailing from the Scottish highlands, Sermanni is an enchanting singer-songwriter, whose performance and lyrics draw from a deep well of mysticism, dreams, nature and the simple-complex experience of being human; a contemporary folk musician influenced by a wealth of genres including jazz, rock, old-time and traditional.

'Dreamer Awake,' was recorded at Middle Farm Studios, Devon with co-producer, Peter Miles. Recording live to tape with people that, "most of the time, are jazz improvisers," the sessions were conducted with an almost Lynchian approach, with Sermanni choosing "to flow through [the experience] like a dream". The result is an album that captures the intimacy of the room, and the immediacy of these songs that transform thought, memory and emotion into such wondrous light. Channelling the metamorphic experience of becoming a mother, and processing the demise of a long-term relationship, Sermanni dove deep into her psyche and returned with songs that have a sharpness, an acuity of feeling, and that capture the fluidity of our mind and the depth of our emotional experience.

Rightly described by critics as a "Folk noir gem" (MOJO), "Stately, poetic" (CLASH) and "Folk of the Highest Order" (Time Out), Rachel Sermanni has been making music for over a decade and has developed her artistic voice over her many releases, each time pushing boundaries and experimenting with different musical textures while maintaining the raw emotional connection, to herself and others, that defines her music.

Rachel Sermanni has toured the globe, played alongside artists such as Mumford & Sons, Fink, Ron Sexsmith, John Grant, The Staves, Karine Polwart, The Maes and many more at venues and festivals all over, most recently playing with Charlie Cunningham. She also runs a songwriting workshop called Cultivating A Creative Life and her podcast, Rachel Sermanni's Finger That Points To The Moon, similarly explores her relationship to creativity and inspiration, with the hope that it will help point in the direction of truth for herself and those listening.