Reviewed by James Lavender

‘Emilie’ is Emilie Kahn, a Canadian singer-songwriter, and ‘Ogden’ is her harp. Not since Echo and the Bunnymen has an artist or group included their musical instrument in their name. Using Ogden as her starting point, Emilie Kahn has crafted a relaxed, willowy album which is something to be savoured.

Kahn has a very soft, yet haunting voice which does remind me a little of British Indie-Pop band Summer Camp. The first song on the album ‘Blame’ is a good example of Kahn’s confident singing abilities. The harp forms the backbone of much of the album, but Kahn successfully fleshes it out with a strong drum, bass and guitar accompaniment courtesy of Dominic Lalonde and Francis Ledoux on tracks such as ‘Ten Thousand’ and ‘Long Gone’. It appears Kahn has taken influences from a number of different musical styles, as demonstrated by the jazz drumming on ‘Go Home’ and the folk-stylings on ‘Nothing New’. Listen to ‘Hold Me Down’ and you could swear that it was some sort of lullaby. Kahn is also a strong lyricist and plays to her strengths, although there are hints of subtle humour, most notably on ‘Babel’ with the cheeky lyric “two lovers are better than one”.

Emilie & Ogden’s debut album is a confident introduction to her music and it would be interesting to see the direction Kahn takes her sound in. It is certainly something to be enjoyed on a quiet night in.

3 out of 5