More beautiful - Beth Orton

I've seen Beth Orton twice and hope to see her again soon. Of course, seeing her in Norwich means that they are special 'coming home' concerts, but in any case she's my favourite female artist, especially live. And now after a break of six years in which she's married, had a daughter called Nancy, and a son, Arthur, she has a new album, 'Sugaring Season' out on 2nd October. 

All her recent releases are 'carbon neutral', with trees planted in Mexico off-setting all the paraphernalia of producing cds. In 2007 she joined forces with Annie Lennox and 22 other female artists to release 'Sing', a single to raise awareness of mother-to child transmission of HIV to unborn children in Africa.

Beth's own mother died when she was 19 (her father had died just after leaving her mother when she was 11), and Beth spent a while living with Buddhist nuns in Thailand. 

She became involved in fringe theatre; had collaborations with William Orbit and the Chemical Brothers, and her breakthrough album, in 1996, 'Trailer Park' followed her first, 'SuperPinkyMandy', which contained some originals of songs later re-worked for the second album. She then released 'Central Reservation' in 1999, and 'Daybreaker' in 2002 was a UK top 20 album. In 2000 she was awarded the Best Female Artist in the Brit awards, after several nominations. Her atmospheric music has been used in film  ('Vanilla Sky' for one instance) and tv ('Grey's Anatomy' and others).

'Comfort of Strangers' in 2006 moved away from the electronic sound of previous work: she's been labelled 'folktronica' in the past.

Which brings us to 'Sugaring the Past', which has been called 'autumnal' presumably for its mellow, mature qualites. Her voice is always at once ethereal and yet earthy, and this collection of haunting melodies and folk ballads sees her usual mix of unusual, sombre and sometimes charming lyrics.  The single 'Magpie' has already got under my skin; she says she is obsessed by birds, and  that wherever she lives two jays follow her;  the videos attest to this fascination, with a murmuration of starlings in 'Something More Beautiful', a beautiful video.

Beth Orton will be touring in UK and Ireland in November and December this year. For full list of dates, please see below:
Sunday, November 25 - Leamington Spa - Assembly Rooms
Monday, November 26 - Birmingham - Glee Club
Tuesday, November 27 - Sheffield - Memorial Hall
Thursday, November 29 - Ashford Kent - St. Mary's Church
Friday, November 30 - Brighton - St Georges Church
Sunday, December 2 - Norwich - Arts Centre
Monday, December 3 - Milton Keynes - The Stables
Wednesday, December 5 - London - Union Chapel
Thursday, December 6 - Nottingham - Rescue Rooms
Friday, December 7 - Bristol - Thekla
Sunday, December 9 - Manchester - RHCM
Monday, December 10 - Portsmouth - Wedgewood Rooms
Tuesday, December 11 - Cardiff - Glee Club
Thursday, December 13 - Glasgow - Oran Mor
Friday, December 14 - Dublin (IE) - Pepper Canister Canister Church

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