Evi Vine – and so the morning comes
Whisper it but we may just have a major talent here. Evi Vine’s compositions evoke a deliciously twilit atmosphere. Hers is a midnight is bathed in veiled moonlight. Some of the pieces here are so hushed, so fragile sounding that as a listener you feel you have to hold your breath for fear of disrupting the lady. Flickering shadows envelop the room. A sense of longing pervades. The darkness, the dreaming, the patterns on the wall – it’s a mood that might drift away at some point after the record ceases. But something else will stay with the listener for days, maybe even a lifetime… the voice. This girl has pipes of liquid honey.
You’ll have to excuse the awful writer cliché. There’s nothing saccharine about Evi Vine . Sweet, yes, but not oversweet. I’ll wager that sensual will be another ubiquitous pull from the critics collective kitbag. Evi is sensual, certainly but she doesn’t ever resort to coquettishness. Hers is a grown up seduction. I should know. I’m a grown up and I’m seduced. This voice though, what a gorgeous instrument and it has nothing to do with the shrill, piercing volume that many mistake for great singing. (Stand up Whitney) Evi is like a fast car going through the gears and on and so the morning comes she hardly ever hits top speed. Most of the album is an exercise in restraint. Evi keeps matters simmering but never boiling over. She begins, like this article, with a whisper and rarely rises above. Evi is gossamer. These aren’t songs, these are exhalations. ‘For The Dreamers’ is probably her best known piece and listening to Evi is exactly like watching somebody dream. Hers may be the gentlest of sleep murmurs but it’s a privilege to witness. You only say that about somebody special.
Sandy Denny , Natalie Merchant , Kate Bush , Tori Amos …………Evi Vine sounds like none of them. Yet she merits comparison. She stands in that kind of company. Indeed the ghostly, looped coda that is ‘All The Beauty’ evokes memories of the wonderful 4.A.D. project, This Mortal Coil
In all likelihood and so the morning comes will be one of those ‘under the radar’ successes. Her next album might be the Mercury. (How should I know? They haven’t brought me onto the panel yet). All I can tell you with any certainty is that this is quality, a lovely debut that ranks alongside Cowboy Junkies , Trinity Session or Sol Seppy’s Bells Of 1 2 . If it’s for dreamers it’s for us , in other words. Go listen to Evi Vine, fall under her spell, tell someone else. Even shout about it. Just leave the whispers to Evi.