Daughter Of The Water – Cast Through The Mistletoe Tree: Album Review

By John Barlass on 19th September 2025 • ( Leave a comment )

Conceived and recorded on a narrowboat on the River Thames in Rural Oxfordshire, the six songs on Cast Through The Mistletoe Tree evoke that magical pastoral setting and transport the listener far, far, away from the tribulations of the modern world.

Release Date: 2^nd August 2025

Label: River Siren Records

Formats: CD / Digital

DAUGHTER OF THE WATER

Sarah Lambert-Gates, otherwise known as Daughter Of The Water, is an archaeologist, a composer, a vocalist, a banjola player and a musical time-traveller. Not necessarily in that order. Cast Through The Mistletoe Tree is her fourth album as Daughter Of The Water and follows 2023 offering, Hearthstones.

A childhood chorister, Sarah’s musical career began in earnest in the early 2000s, when she assumed the role of vocalist and co-composer in Desdemona, a 5-piece guitar-led dream pop outfit. She later moved on to The Jettes, a heavier, edgier, band, then onward to sing harmonies in classical chamber-pop choir, The Dairy Project. By accident or by design, it was the perfect apprenticeship for life as Daughter Of The Water.

AN INSPIRATIONAL ENVIRONMENT

Songwriter such as Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell, as well as the themes of English folk culture have each had an influence on Sarah’s songwriting, as does her domestic habitat aboard her narrowboat on the River Thames in the heart of rural Oxfordshire. Her music has drawn comparisons with the work of Amelia Coburn, Virginia Ashley, Vashti Bunyan and Kate Bush.

On Cast Through The Mistletoe Tree, Sarah is joined by Bones Huse (frontman of doom-rock band Morass of Molasses). Together, Sarah and Bones composed and recorded this suite of songs on Sarah’s boat, whilst moored on Hardwick Estate near Mapledurham in Oxfordshire. The closeness to nature and the gentle flow of the Thames pervades every song on the album. The mistletoe tree of the album’s title is a stately poplar, heavy with distinctive balls of mistletoe, in Sarah’s home field. The tree guides Sarah back to her home on many a misty moonlit night and provides constant inspiration to her songwriting. The lyrics and melodies of Cast Through The Mistletoe Tree are truly evocative and transport the listener away from the bustle of modern England and into the pastoral security of Sarah’s own private world.

Daughter of the Water – with collaborator Bones Huse

SOOTHING AND ETHEREAL

And opening track, Ghostbird, provides an immediate entry to that special, dream-filled, place. “I wrote the lyrics to [the song] on my narrowboat, whilst moored in a wildflower meadow on an organic farm,” says Sarah. “The song captures the essence of a calm, dusky, evening, stillness, fog, moonlight and the silent glide of a barn owl through the field.” It sure does and, after reading the album’s press release, Ghostbird is exactly what I was expecting to hear. It’s soothing and it’s ethereal – like a heavenly choir and gently-picked guitar (or is it a banjola?) is the only accompaniment that the host of harmonized voices need to paint a mental image of that misty field of Sarah’s description.

The imagery is clearer and warmer for Dusty Horse, another gentle song, with observational, poetic lyrics. A single voice sits to the fore, but the sweet harmonies haven’t gone away; there’s a mystical, medieval ambience to the song and, whilst I listened, those comparisons to The Medieval Babes started to make sense.

THE COMPARISONS KEEP ON COMING

Sleep is always a pleasant prospect within the cocooned environment of a narrowboat and Sarah builds upon that thought with Melancholy Midnight, a soothing lullaby. The focus here is upon Sarah’s voice and her words of contentment: “Sleep, my love – it’s just melancholy midnight.” I can hear echoes of Kate Bush in her delivery, and the comparisons keep on coming as Sarah seems to turn to Nick Drake for inspiration for Ebbe and Flow, a dreamy, relaxed song with a blissful late 60s feel.

Birdsong and an engaging guitar/banjola figure provide the intro to Cuckoo, another song that evokes images of the pastoral banks of the mighty Thames. Sarah celebrates the arrival of the cuckoo, the ‘harbinger of spring,’ in a song that, perhaps, owes more that any other to English folk tradition.

DREAM ON – AND ESCAPE

And, to close a short – but thoroughly enjoyable – album, Sarah demonstrates that, in paradise, even the rain doesn’t dampen the spirit. The sound of rainfall and a chiming church bell – recorded, I imagine, through the side hatch of Sarah’s boat – opens the delightful Rain Bells. It’s another dreamy affair, as Sarah imagines climbing overboard and swimming in the river, whilst rain falls and the bells ring. A recurrent guitar/banjola motif allows Sarah the space to let her voice – and imagination – venture into unexpected places.

It’s a mad world that we’re living in and, if you fancy escaping for a short while, then give Cast Through The Mistletoe Tree a listen. For a blissful 25 minutes or so, wars and suffering and the antics of Trump, Farage, Putin and co will be put on ’hold.’

Watch the official video to Ghostbird – the album’s opening track, and its lead single, below: