Under Mountains

“Breathe Easy” is an apt tile for the song that opens Rachel Sermanni’s debut album, Under Mountains. With an eight-piece band, the honey-voiced songstress somehow makes the tune seem to slowly inhale and exhale. Folk singer Sermanni resides in the lovely village of Carrbridge in the Scottish highlands. Her Scottish accent is barely noticeable throughout Under Mountains, though there are moments when it pops out, such as in the playfully spooky “Bones” and in the minimalist moments that give “Waltz” a wintry beauty. In the hypnotic “Ever Since the Chocolate,” she sings about a candy bar as if it were one of the magic edibles in Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In “Fog,” her band cleverly approximates the creeping motion of a cold and cloudy mass as it slowly layers in chilling minor chords and textural ambience, creating a feel that's both haunting and bewitching. Even in more whimsically titled songs like “Marshmallow Unicorn,” Sermanni excels at polishing the sliver lining of the melancholy clouds in her heart. “Song to a Fox” closes like a Marissa Nadler ballad.