Salt House: Lay Your Dark Low – review

An aggregate of established musicians doesn't always mean a great group, but this Scots folk quartet make a seamless team on this debut. It's an understated acoustic affair, but the playing – principally fiddle and guitar over Euan Burton's stalking double bass – is assured and precise, while Siobhan Miller's vocals are bright and unforced. The material blends original with traditional (sometimes in the same song), with landscape rather than narrative at its centre. The much covered Katie Cruel gets a countryesque makeover, while the stately She Walks in Beauty mixes Byron's poem with original and borrowed material; impertinent, but it works.