Freya Roy
Album: Wait In The Water
Label: FCR
Tracks: 6
Website: http://www.facebook.com/freyaroymusic

If Fatea is about anything, its ensuring that artists get a voice, the opportunity to let the wider world know what they are doing. I'm particularly proud that over the years, Fatea has featured a high percentage of artists under the age of twenty. As the technology has progressed, those young artists have not just made the music, but more and more the apparatus to record, release and publicise those releases.

Freya Roy is just such an artist. At sixteen she is not only writing and recording her own songs, but has also put together her own record label to get those songs to a wider audience with "Wait In The Water" being the first fruits of those labours.

Being able to do the record label stuff, which Freya definitely seems to have cracked, is nothing without the product to work with and Freya is definitely all there as well. "Wait In The Water" has both the songs and a sound that belie the artists age, this is a singer performing and writing beyond her years.

If there is a weakness in this folk/acoustic pop EP it's that the production has left it with a sound that is just a little thin, but don't let that put you off, all the elements are there, there just needs to be a slight more depth in the mix. It's there, but not enough to detract from a series of excellent songs.

The title track, for example, is a powerful and emotional ballad, delicately accompanied. Sparse, using silence as much as the vocal line to give emphasis to the words, there were times when I was reminded of Mari Wilson.

Throughout this five tracker I found myself being impressed time and time again. Freya Roy is definitely a name to listen out for. She has a natural and gifted touch, one that, given the right breaks, should serve her well, and she would also appear to have the talent that if the breaks don't come, she'll create them. "Wait In The Water" is definitely worth taking a punt of and I would hazard a guess and say worth keeping in mint condition.

Neil King