Enderby’s Room are a quirky indie-folk collective whose old meets new sound is created via instruments such as a Victorian pedal harmonium, French horn, double bass, ukulele, guitar and percussion.
On their debut album the band is a 5-piece although at one time or another over 30 individuals have been part of the project during the past 10 years. In the present incarnation, Emma Winston sings lead vocals on a couple of tracks and harmonies on many others.
There's a delicacy to the minimalist, unplugged arrangements which gives the tunes a warm, homely quality. Typical of the pre-digital domesticity can be found in The Music which centres on a referential description of playing a vinyl record.
The mainstay and leader of the group is fiddle player and singer Dan Mayfield who grew up in rural Lincolnshire but he now lives in London.
The name Enderby comes from a comic Anthony Burgess character, a 'professional poet' who suffered from bad indigestion and composed while seated on the toilet.
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Thankfully, Mayfield's delicate, idiosyncratic but consistently melodic songs expand beyond the four walls of a bathroom. The landscape evoked appears to derive from his country origins with references to lakes, brooks, willowy pathways, disused quarries, distant forests and poison ivy weed.
If there's a unifying theme or message, it is that we should pay attention to details in our surroundings rather than get distracted by unnecessary peripherals. This means noticing the flight of migrating birds, relishing the texture of fallen leaves and valuing longstanding friendships.
Finding time to savour the quiet eccentricities of a record like this would also be a step in the right direction.
Enderbys Room's website
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