A classy mix of electronic and organic, as the tradition gets a lick of paint from down under.

Release Date: 29th September 2025

Label: Self-Released

Format: CD / Vinyl / Digital (all via Bandcamp)

NOT YET A HOUSEHOLD NAME

I’m guessing that Ruth Hazleton may not be a household name to most readers, possibly even to many in Australia. Which is a shame and not for want of merit; this Melbourne based singer, banjo player, guitarist and songwriter, has been a constant on the folk and roots circuit down under for 30 years, with a 2021 Solo Artist of the Year to boot, in the Australian Folk Awards. With an electric guitar tuned to DADGAD and an open-back 5-string banjo, Ruth began her solo journey in 2019, her solo debut, Daisywheel, being produced by Shooglenifty alumnus, Luke Plumb. No stickler to genre conventions, as with that well-received release, Heronbones, her second, is a potent mix of, largely, traditional with electronica and FX. Folktronica, by any other name.

If that sounds a tired old cliche, dusted down from recent decades, fear not, as there is more than enough fizz and kick here, as to bite deep chunks from either side the cloth. And, for all the studio jiggery-pokery, it is the material and her voice that count most, Plumb is once more on hand, this time as co-producer, but the bulk of the playing comes from Hazleton, she being credited with vocals, guitar, 5-string banjo, synths, programming and sound design. Rounding out that design are Hayato Simpson, Martin Penicka and Mattie Foulds, on fiddle, cello and drums, respectively.

A CONDUIT BETWEEN ARTIFICE AND ARTISTRY

The album opens with a song of her own, Letter From A Friend (Firesong), which is much as that title suggests. Over slow repeating bubbles of sound, Hazleton’s smooth and warm tones sing the sorry outcome of events, correspondence from a friend, writing from the devastations of forest fire. The mood is all sad resignation, with washes of ambient sound undercut by slow and plangent cello strokes. A slow tap of percussion completes the vista. Her voice is the graceful conduit between the artifice and the artistry, the balance therebetween perfect. A sombre testimony which sets both the mood and the bar, which, for the latter, is high.

We like, I think, Selkies here, and are no stranger to their stories. In another self-written song, Hazleton takes a tweak to the well told tale, with her voice a keening lament with echoes of Linda Thompson, as the end of notes slowly fray. Programming creaks ominously beneath her, as the seal woman reclaims her stolen skin, slipping back into the sea, a metaphor for regaining personal sovereignty. It is a powerful song, and the phasing of the arrangement brings out well the mystical elements of the legend. Foulds’ percussion is insistent, more so as electronic drums add even more to the momentum, as multiple Hazleton’s picking up the unfolding narrative.

A DARKFOLK SHEEN

Tricoloured House introduces banjo onto the palette, and the song swiftly reveals itself, with the litany of herbs, parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, as a song known better by one of several different names. Hazleton says she took inspiration from Lankum’s 2014 reading of the song. Ethereal secondary vocals come from Aiofe Nic Dhiarmada, a bastion of Antipodean Celtic culture, and, as well as applying a ghostly echo, take off also into wordless sean-nós. Two Sisters gets a similar darkfolk sheen, banjo again to the fore, with the spooky tale somewhat re-imagined. Rather than a violin, the bones of the murdered sibling get transformed into a heron. (And hence the album’s name.) Banjo rolls over captured choral snippets of sound, a counterpoint melody calling responses to the those of the primary lines. It’s actually all very Oysterband in style and substance, even with the programming.

Jones and Co. may also be prompted from the next song, Molly Baun Lavery, or Molly Bond, as they might have it. Jangly shards of guitar vie with chunky banjo, whilst a synthesiser babbles, all three the prompt to Hazleton’s creamy delivery, here with touches of Steeleye in her vocal and the repeating guitar motif. Early Steeleye, obviously. A drone perpetuates, as drums kick in part way through, like storm clouds appearing on a darkening sky. The dread heightens with the build to the always unhappy conclusion, and it is win win between the competing textures.

MARROW-CURDLING SONIC

Four Rouds in a row, then, with Rufford Park Poachers getting a studio wash and brush up from Hazleton. To be fair, allowing for the guitar being electric, her rendition is reasonably faithful to the Nic Jones version she mentions in the sleeve notes, right down to the raga like exoticisms brought into the guitar part. A moodier interpretation, perhaps, if still respectful to the source. Pipe organ sounds inform The Wagoner’s Lad, making for a fifth trad.arr. Again, the traditional melody that carries the words is running at a cross purpose to the organ, with addition asymmetry via the off-kilter precision of Foulds. Episodic power chords punctuate the lyric, as if for emphasis, with synthesiser droned having similar purpose. If Lankum were the source and inspiration for Tri-Coloured House, their marrow-curdling sonic, elicited here, is surely another.

It is with one of her own songs that Hazleton wraps things up, offering further magpie influences. Foreign Shores has, as it’s main scaffold, repeating abbreviated snatches of choral voice, both as decoration and forward propulsion. If any memory stirs, might that be for Kate Bush? Although, clearly, vocally very different, this song could easily have come from the time of Bush’s The Sensual World. A triumph of construction, it is a powerful and lasting way in which to close, and I salute it.

A FUTURE HOUSEHOLD NAME (FINGERS CROSSED)

This review began with a comment about how relatively unknown the singer might be. Wouldn’t it be good not to have to start any future review in such a way, this set deserving her exposure way beyond the southern hemisphere. Spread the word!

Like the sound of all that? Then you should like the sound of this, The Returning (Selkie):

Ruth Hazleton online : Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bluesky

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