Called by a malevolent spirit, Bethia Beadman threw her life up in the air, bought a cheap flight to New Orleans, and took off around the swamp towns of Louisiana. Her new album captures the feel of dark odyssey – primal, elemental, thick with swamp-dog magic. That chapter the latest in a life that presents like a film or a dream. A Sanskrit scholar who sang for a cardinal in the Vatican. Her tour playing piano for Courtney Love’s Hole. Then in the studio, working with Nigel Godrich on “From The Basement” with Radiohead. Depeche Mode and The Stooges. Her run of personal “audio diaries” - committed only to vinyl - that existed far from any scene. Punctuated all the while by intense live shows, peaking in an extraordinary night, filling (via word of mouth) London’s Union Chapel. Her new album might sit alongside Sharon Van Etten or PJ Harvey, even the melancholy of Lana Del Rey. Yet there’s a timeless, well-travelled guile and gravitas at play here, just as likely to recall her touchstone artists: Leonard Cohen, Neil Young and Low. She has the soul of a rare voice and talent. An antidote to contemporary overstimulation. A mainline to magic.