Ivo first encountered Heidi Berry when he saw her opening for Felt. The daughter of artists - a jazz-singing mother with French-Canadian roots; an American actor father - her voice and songs recalled an earlier generation of folk-fusion visionaries.
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Ivo first encountered Heidi Berry when he saw her opening for Felt. The daughter of artists - a jazz-singing mother with French-Canadian roots; an American actor father - her voice and songs recalled an earlier generation of folk-fusion visionaries. Heidi's relationship with Creation Records (for whom she had made an album and an EP) had recently ended. Ivo invited the Boston, Massachusetts native to record a cover of Emmylou Harris's ‘Til I Gain Control Again’ for Blood, the third album by 4AD supergroup This Mortal Coil. He also introduced her to producer Peter Walsh - acclaimed for his work on Scott Walker's comeback opus Climate Of Hunter - with whom she recorded Love. 1993's self-titled record was a masterfully arranged set of late-night contemplation, produced by Hugh Jones and featuring the instrumental talents of ex-Loft/Weather Prophets leader Peter Astor, House Of Love guitarist Terry Bickers, Pentangle bassist Danny Thompson, Charlatans drummer Jon Brookes and pedal steel legend BJ Cole. The album was accompanied by a single, ‘The Moon And The Sun’, plus an American tour with labelmates Red House Painters. Miracle was Heidi's third and final album for 4AD. An exquisitely folky collection, it prompted Ross Fortune of Time Out London magazine to declare, "If the idiot-grinning hipsters who idly namecheck Tim Buckley, Sandy Denny and Nick Drake don't like Heidi Berry, then they're clearly both shit-faced and stupid."