Emiliana Torrini "Fisherman's Woman", Emiliana Torrini new album out on Rough Trade Records.

So opens Emiliana Torrini's second album, a soft-yet-searing collection of twelve intimate and atmospheric songs that will whisper their way into your bloodstream. Back in 1999, when the singer released the critically acclaimed "Love In The Time Of Science," Emiliana Torrini came out with a gorgeous, electronic trippoppin' vision of endless summer and moonlit nights out. Following her departure from One Little Indian, there's a new introspection, closer to Nick Drake or Jolie Holland than Portishead or Goldfrapp.

"This whole record is about these four years I was away," explains Emiliana Torrini "Very life-changing times. A lot of things happened. I just couldn't at this stage go back to writing a record like I did before." Indie HQ Rough Trade clearly approved of her new direction: they signed Emiliana immediately after hearing the first demos from "Fisherman's Woman".

The 27-year-old singer and writer has nonetheless been busy since "Love In The Time Of Science". Emiliana Torrini moved to Brighton, joined the cast of Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers to perform the enchanting "Gollum Song" wrote and toured with Thievery Corporation, and wrote a Number One Hit for Kylie Minogue in the shape of huge-selling pop smash "Slow". "It was a very fun thing to do," she says. "It was an opportunity to dust off my dancing shoes and write music that I don't normally write but love, and then keep the smokey-little-bar-music to my self."
"Slow" was written and produced with Brixton-based producer Mr Dan, midway through the sessions that became "Fisherman's Woman". After writing with a number of different artists, Emiliana Torrini was introduced to Mr Dan – and they clicked immediately. "It had been so long since the last album, and I was in two minds of doing it again," Emiliana Torrini says. "I was very nervous about going back, but we had so much fun doing it. It is just one of those collaborations I have been waiting for all my life."

Emiliana Torrini decided to go back to basics and write with just a guitar and no electronics or programming. The pair jammed out the songs in Dan's dark Brixton basement with Dan on guitar and Emiliana Torrini conjuring up the lyrics and melodies. After that they recorded the record in The Exchange in Camden. "Well one thing I knew very well is that I wanted a very intimate vocal sound," she says. "This album was recorded with candles, laughing fits and my duvet. We were sad leaving Brixton. I love it there," she continues. "It can suck the life out of you and then blow you full again. Depends what mood it's in. Brixton is like a huge 'me me me show'."

Intimate. It sounds like it: opening gambit "Nothing Brings Me Down" gradually builds from sparse beginnings; Dan's acoustic guitar, light touches of piano – to a textured, gentle circle. Album highlight "Sunny Road" sounds as if it could have leaped out of a dusty, lost Leonard Cohen session, while "Lifesaver" floats along a mysterious, fairytale accordion melody, accompanied by the ambient creak of boats on water. "Thinking Out Loud" whispers of Eastern Europe and the Appalachians before album closer, "Serenade" multi-tracks the listener into a moonlit dream which references clouds, dark vines, temptations and new tomorrows. It's evocative and heart-felt – a handcrafted jewel of a record. "Fisherman's Woman" also includes a song, "Honeymoon Child" written by smog's Bill Callahan, who Emiliana spent some time writing with in America.

""Fisherman's Woman" is a very different beast. It is themed around loss, and how it feels to lose people; sometimes it's dripping with sadness but more frequently imbued with almost magical optimism. "Fisherman's Woman" is a letter I wrote to a person that I lost at that time. I coped by thinking I was with a fisherman. They can go on sea for months like my friend's dad. Her mum saw him twice a year maybe for a fortnight at a time," she says. "It was a little bit like Alice in Wonderland. The falling into a hole, the madness of it all." Despite the sadness, Emiliana remains positive. "I could never write a wholly sad album," Emiliana Torrini says laughing. "There are too many moon rivers to see and life to live. Fisherman’s Woman has been a way of making things whole again."

Emiliana Torrini "Fisherman's Woman" CD: ORDER IT NOW.