Bedouine: Bedouine review – elegant, honeyed country-soul

The latest record from Spacebomb, the Virginia country-soul studio, is a fragrant balm. The songs combine sweet country cadences – as on One of These Days, a love song – with the gentle lilt of 60s folk and Astrud Gilberto; analogue enthusiast Guy Seyffert produces and sometime Beck guitarist Smokey Hormel combines with Spacebomb’s signature arrangements to flesh out these honeyed songs. Elegant as it is, this is succour with great heft, too. Bedouine is Azniv Korkejian, an LA sound designer who was born into an Armenian family in Syria and came to the US via Saudi Arabia. Her moniker doesn’t specifically reference North Africa, but the Bedouin’s state of wandering – both enforced and self-instigated. Her authority is unquestionable: songs such as the Leonard Cohen-influenced Solitary Daughter give Laura Marling a serious run for her money.