KARINE POLWART'S third solo album is dark and intimate.

The pared-down arrangements of traditional ballads and love songs feature sparse piano or guitar accompaniment to highlight Polwart's warm vocals and assured storytelling.

Florid imagery infuses the poignant Birks Of Invermay, which is echoed in the lyrical Robert Burns song The Lea-rig.

Burns is also the source of the doleful Mirk Mirk Is This Midnight Hour, which highlights brother Steven Polwart's classical guitar, and the chirpy jig Thou Has Left Me Ever Jamie.

This album is proof that you do not need much more than a good voice and emotional conviction to carry songs that have survived for hundreds of years.