Clara Tracey hails from Neil Hannon country – Co. Fermanagh, and after dabbling in law for a number of years music properly got it’s hooks in her whilst she was living in Paris, performing in that city’s countless music cafes.

On returning to Ireland she continued her musical evolution under a number of guises, whilst also playing with notable acts including Maija Sofia, Paddy Hanna and Aoife Nessa Francis. She experimented with her sound and writing over the years, sometimes in a frustrating quest for perfection, however that journey has finally culminated in the release of her debut album, the spell-binding ‘Black Forest’.

Produced by Daniel Fox (Gilla Band) this is an album which is a mesmerising collection, bewitching from the opening esoteric piano of ‘Russian Gymnast I’ which runs into the delightful off-kilter double salvo of ‘Soap Girls’ and ‘Jane Birkin’.

The atmosphere throughout ‘Black Forest’ is magically dreamlike, a heady mix of piano, organs, synths and subtle reverb guitar creating an intoxicating tableau for our chanteuse, whose presence is entrancing and beguiling.

Baby Witch is a luxurious affair with a real ’70s French nouveau pop vibe about it, another standout is the title track which sees Tracey at her most enticing, a darkly suggestive and seductive fairytale.

With ‘Black Forest’ Clara Tracey has delivered a deeply impressive debut album that announces her as an exceptionally magnetic talent, bursting with boundless potential, it is an album which implores you to submit to its alluring charms.

‘Black Forest’ is out now on Pizza Pizza Records.