Album Reviews

Reviews of my Album,
An Iomall (The Edge)

The Irish Edition – Philadelphia 2002

…Alyth is from the Isle of Lewis and sings in Gaelic. She has a soft, almost gentle voice: a sad lilt that tugs at something deep inside, a loneliness that creeps up on you during each song. The perfect voice for these songs.

But again, it's the arrangements which take the songs to another level. At times disturbing, at times amusing, but always moving. I am reminded of some of the work by the Kronos Quartet or the Beatles at their most adventurous…creating a compulsive recording that I play over and over.

There is a handful of performers…who, while deeply involved in tradition, make relevant connections with alternative styles. Alyth McCormack is one of this handful.

The Seattle Weekly & www.amazon.com 2002
Review by Mark Keresman

Alyth McCormack is a young singer from the Western Islands of Scotland who sings in the Gaelic language. Despite her youth, McCormack's voice is rich with a striking, honest maturity. At times she reminds me of Helen Merrill…as well as the trad-Balkan singer Marta Sebestyen. The rhythm of these songs is implicit and poetic, more in the rhythm and meter of the words…The instrumentation is spare (acoustic and electric guitars, piano, fiddle, cello, harp, whistles) and the mood sombre but not oppressively so. This is austere yet soulful music for deep rumination and restless, moonless nights.

The Living Tradition 2002
Debbie Koritsas

An Iomall means ‘The Edge’, and the music reflects the weather-buffeted, exposed …landscape of the Isle of Lewis, where Alyth was raised as a native Gaelic speaker. She has a beautiful, pure voice, which at one moment is incredibly gentle, and at the next strong, and with a passionate edge…All in all, a beautiful collection of songs from an artist of immense talent who never fails to surprise.

Dirty Linen Feb/Mar 2002
Review by Bruce E. Harper

…In some ways (McCormack’s) work could be compared to the ground breaking Mouth Music recordings by Martyn Bennett a few years ago…The arrangements by McCormack in collaboration with pianist Davey Trouton and producer Jim Sutherland are works of beauty themselves, with an almost classical structure but use elements from Jazz…On top of all this McCormack is a great singer using traditional stylings but adding on top of those a variety of vocal techniques to draw new emotions out of the music.