Tori Amos - Night Of The Hunters (Deutsche Grammaphon)

As her first album (12th in her entire career and the first to be entirely acoustic) signed to the label Deutsche Grammaphon, Tori Amos’ Night of Hunters is what you’d expect from an artist so far into their career: epic. Not on a scale of explosions and bangs epic, but on a scale of fairy tale epic. Even the 1300 word description of this album shows that.

String quartets add both a delicate and striking detail, whilst an array of orchestral instruments (piano and woodwind being the notable ones) create evocative tones straight from a page of Peter and the Wolf. Opener ‘Shattering Sea’ adds a dramatic gothic tension akin to its own name whilst ‘Battle of Trees’ and ‘Star Whisperer’ continue to spawn the chilling and otherworldly aura which pervades throughout Night of Hunters. ‘SnowBlind’ sounds like a reimagining of a Bond theme by way of a child’s horror story. Meanwhilst Tori’s captivating voice – similar to Kate Bush’s – joins a wonderful partnership with her 11 year old daughter Nataysha – who’s adolescent grain sounds wonderful and dare we say it, a little like Ellie Goulding on the minimalist ‘Cactus Practise.’

At an ambitious 14 tracks, Night of Hunters will demand a lot of your time. Invest in it though, and you will be well rewarded.