Touring her Merge debut, the mesmerising The Knife, The Needle, Elanor Moss is starkly illuminated in the black box of Chapter’s Seligman Theatre, her clear, sharp voice granted centre-stage. The gentle, at times unsettlingly close, intimacy of her album, is heightened here, as she strips back the modest arrangements of her recorded material, where strings and brass add texture and depth.
A talented wordsmith, tonight Moss chooses to accompany herself with only a guitar, her lyrics granted even more potency than on record. On tracks with a lighter tone – the tender love song Secrets Of The Universe, for instance – Moss feels like she is inviting you to share in the warmth of her experience. Lightness and warmth are not to be frequently found on The Knife, The Needle, though, and lyrics to songs like the album’s title track (“Somewhere deep down, I’m afraid that if you show me the knife I might use it on you, baby”) send shivers down the spine when delivered in person.
For all that, Moss is a genial host and her set is interspersed with amusing anecdotes and a couple of covers which serve to ground her own material in its reference points. Joni Mitchell’s Cactus Tree is a natural companion for much of the rest of the songs in her set, while a cover of Alex G’s Bobby shows that Moss is painting with a broader palette than many of her peers. Excellent new material, such as a tune called Certainty, which rests on a low, punchy guitar line, suggests that Moss’s brilliant debut will not be a flash in the pan.
Support tonight comes from Sophie Jamieson, who is a bundle of jangling, excited energy. Describing herself as impatient with her own material, she plays little from her first two full-lengths, instead treating the disappointingly sparse audience to newer songs, delivered with charm and a clear love for her craft. Both of these acts are grounded in folk music, but each have moved well beyond the traditional and are taking their sound to new places.
Elanor Moss + Sophie Jamieson, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Thurs 8 Oct
words and photos HUGH RUSSELL
