Music

Dropping the children off to school is not necessarily the most exciting thing someone does, but for two women in Cornwall a chance meeting has led to them recording an album together.

Zoe Pollock, who scored a major hit in the '90s with the summer anthem 'Sunshine on a Rainy Day' met singer/songwriter Sarah McQuaid at her child's local school, and soon learned they had plenty in common when it came to music.

That meeting at the gates has turned into a musical collaboration appropriately called 'MAMA'. The two women have spent many months working in west Cornwall, writing and recording their debut album 'Crow Coyote Buffalo'.

For Zoe it's her first album in 12 years. Earlier this year the singer revisited her past by re-recording her classic song 'Sunshine on a Rainy Day'.

Zoe Pollock has spent many years travelling after her chart success. The new album benefits from her extensive trips, as it has soaked up textures and rhythms from all over the world. Zoe and Sarah have fused those influences in a curiously offbeat and retro way.

The end result is embellished with Eastern nuances and Marachi jazz.

The tracks include the upbeat 'Fool Of Spring' and 'Dancing Girl' to more meditative offerings like 'Western', with its mesmerising spoken-word interludes, and 'The Lovers', a hypnotic ode to Tarot card illustrator Pamela Colman Smith.

Singing Mums - Zoe and Sarah McQuaid

Comparisons have been drawn to the likes of The Doors and Crosby, Stills & Nash, and there are strong folk and jazz influences running through.

Zoë is blessed with a distinctive, powerful voice that took the charts by storm in the '90s. With the addition of inventive harmonies, countermelodies and instrumental flourishes from Sarah McQuaid (who authored a highly regarded guitar tutor and has already found success on the folk scene as a solo performer), MAMA is set to become a success story for west Cornwall.

Guesting on the album are Tiffany Bryant (flute) and Andy Jarvis (drums, percussion, trumpet, harmonium, accordion). They are members of the quirky offshore Cornish band Thistletown and now the prog-folk, psychedelic Rosemarie Band.

MAMA made their debut performance at the St Ives September Festival on Friday 12 September 2008.

The duo plan to tour promoting their new material in early 2009.