I first came across the music of Errollyn Wallen in a recent recital by Sarah Connolly and Joseph Middleton.  There was a quality in her music that reminded me of some other composers of Caribbean origin writing about the immigrant experience in Canada.  Wallen is from Belize but now lives in Scotland (in a lighthouse no less) and her music is quite varied.  Unusually, besides being a classically trained composer, she also sings while accompanying herself on the piano and the works she has written for that genre definitely have a singer/songwriter vibe.

Her first CD, called simply Errollyn contains a mixture of the singer/songwriter stuff and some solo piano pieces.  What I noticed is that the piano part in both the solos and in the songs has a degree of sophistication and a range of tonalities unusual in the singer/songwriter genre.  There are also hints of both jazz and the Caribbean in there too.  The texts are unsentimental and often pretty hard hitting, sometimes even disturbing.  It’s really interesting even if it sits a bit oddly with her voice which is very pleasant but definitely does not sound classically trained.

The recording is good but sounds pretty close miked; more of a singer/songwriter than recital hall acoustic.  The record is available as a physical CD and in MP3 and standard res FLAC (which I listened to).  There’s no digital booklet but the words are clear enough anyway.

I definitely want to explore Ms. Wallen’s music some more.  She’s written a lot for voice, orchestra and chamber ensembles so there’s plenty to explore.

Catalogue information: Avie AV0049