Who the hell is?

Bat for Lashes

Wood nymph:In the dead of night, deep in Sussex, a beautiful young witch is conjuring up magical, ethereal music that evokes the spirits of Kate Bush, Björk and Nico. The sorceress is Natasha Khan, aka Bat for Lashes, and the music can be heard on her otherworldly debut, Fur and Gold, a tactile, feral album that showcases her mysterious ways with words and sounds. "In the Sussex countryside I think I was very much in mind to do some experimentation, especially in the recording process," says the Brighton-based singer with the alchemist's touch. For one track, she ran a 50-foot lead into the forest, "I was dark, and it was raining, and I recorded the whole lead vocal with my eyes closed, just feeling the rain, and when I opened my eyes there were just fields for miles around and the mist rolling . . . "

Court and spark:The Khan family made their name in the squash court, but young Natasha always felt more at home in the woods, where her fertile imagination could run wild and free. She was born into a deeply religious, mixed- race family, and spent many childhood summers in her dad's native Pakistan. She recalls keeping exotic pets, losing a goat in a religious ceremony, and falling asleep to the sound of twilight prayers and the howling of dogs. When her parents separated, the 11-year-old prayed to the aliens to bring her dad back, and played her piano endlessly, hoping the extraterrestrials would hear.

Hip teen:"When I was younger I was always doing visual art, and I wanted to be a either a marine biologist or a painter or a writer," Natasha recalls. "Music never really came into it, even though I was always playing. It's bizarre." She honed her multimedia skills in art school and, upon moving to San Francisco in her early 20s, she learnt to see the world from a different, dreamlike perspective. Hooking up with the likes of Devendra Banhart secured her hippy-folk credentials.

Carry on Cleo:Bat For Lashes features Khan and her friends Ginger Lee, Lizzy Carey and Abi, plus an array of exotic instruments including viola, autoharp assorted percussion and vintage electronic keyboards. "It feels almost like you're in school, in music class, and you've got all these goodies that you can pick up and play," enthuses Natasha. "The girls I'm working with now are just fantastic, because they're able to take all those elements that I've composed and sprinkle on their own little magic." Gigs at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood and the Scala in London attracted a growing cult following, enchanted by such songs as Trophy, Prescilla and Sad Eyes, as well as a sensual cover of Bruce Springsteen's I'm on Fire. With all the girls dressed like space-age Cleopatras, it feels like you've walked into some strange sci-fi ritual conducted by a beguiling witch queen.