While Doyle again features prominently on In Love and Light, this time around Talbot felt more able to draw on her own network of musical comrades. "That's another great thing about being with Cherish the Ladies," she says, "becoming a part of that international Irish and Celtic scene. Touring as much as Cherish does, you get to know so many musicians, so when it comes to making an album, you can ask all your friends to come play. To be able to phone people like Roy Dodds from Fairground Attraction, Donald Shaw and Ewen Vernal from Cappercaille and ask them to play on your record is brilliant…and they said yes!"

In addition to the tracks mentioned earlier, the new album features three more traditional songs, an old-timey American number - The Blackest Crow, on which Talbot duets with Orcadian singer Kris Drever - a cover of Cathedrals, by the cult US band Jump Little Children, and two new originals by English singer-songwriter Boo Hewerdine, who also produced the record.

"Sometimes it's the melody, sometimes it's the story or sometimes I'll hear a line I can identify with, whatever the style" says Talbot, of her approach to selecting material. "With the new album, though, I've been trying to think of it as a whole: Distant Future was basically a collection of songs I liked, but this time I've been more aware of how the tracks fit together, and how the mood varies between them."