Silent June was recorded between August and November 2009 at Belinda and Heidi's home in Golcar, Huddersfield, mixed and mastered by Neil Ferguson (Chumbawamba).  With their voices and the infamous Yamaha U3 upright piano featured in The Bairns (Rachel Unthank & The Winterset) as the core sound, this album unveils the joining forces of two highly original and compelling songwriters.  Belinda and Heidi have co-produced the album with Belinda as recording engineer.  "We have invested in some very posh recording equipment, which I have fallen in love with" says Belinda.  By experimenting with the piano and placement of microphones, the duo have managed to create some unique sounds from the instrument including piano chimes, dampened tones and percussion. Belinda explains, "I enjoy approaching the piano sounds unconventionally, as there are so many other possibilities for creating sound other than just striking the keys". 

Belinda's musical background is as much steeped in her love of contemporary classical music as traditional folk and this is apparent in her use of the piano throughout the album. For example All Stand in Line is a homage to Philip Glass combining strident, percussive piano motifs with experimental rhythms provided by expert bodhran player; Cormac Byrne (Uiscedwr, Seth Lakeman band). The war epic; Que Sera is written with Edith Cavell in mind, the WWI nurse who was executed for helping prisoners escape the German army.  "We wanted to write an anti-war song from a woman's perspective and when we heard a documentary on BBC Radio 4 about the heroic Edith Cavell, we felt inspired to write Que Sera."  Heidi; "The song is influenced by the piano etudes of Chopin, they exude sadness in such a simple way."  In the opener Flight of the Petrel; a song that highlights the connection between human behaviour and the fragility of our co-existence with nature, Belinda describes the relationship between Heidi's voice and the piano sound.  "Heidi has a very distinct, warm and breathy voice - so different to mine in timbre and reminds me of the sound of the piano when you dampen the strings." Throughout the album, the combination and interplay between the two very different voices is reminiscent of the dual voice/one voice trademark sound of Simon & Garfunkel.

A predominant force on the album is the use of strings, both in the performances of Anna Esslemont (Uiscedwr) and Jackie Oates, and also the Solo Players string quartet.  Belinda; "We both appreciate the incredible effect string arrangements can have in underpinning the mood of a song, one of our favourites being Harry Robinson's string arrangement on Nick Drake's Riverman.  Heidi; "We like to be adventurous and chose Anna Esslemont partly because of her fierce and passionate violin playing, but also her sensitive understanding of our music." Their treatment of the traditional Irish song Spancil Hill features the octave fiddle of BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winner Jackie Oates.  Belinda;"We felt it was important to introduce some of our joint traditional Irish ancestry into this album, plus we had performed this song many times on tour with Jackie Oates, so decided to keep this arrangement for the album.  Melanie Purves is a new collaborator - who arranged and directed the strings on three of the songs on the album.  She is known for her string work with Corrine Bailey Rae and brought uncompromising, wild and at times eccentric elements to the songs Flight of the Petrel, Que Sera and One More Xmas.  Yet in Beautiful Danger; a song featuring solo piano and voices, there are traces of early Joni Mitchell, exhilarating Bjork-like harmonies in the climatic ending of Shelter Me, and in Hidden From the Sun; Abba-esque harmonies combined with the oddity, fragility and melancholy found in the songs of the late Lal Waterson.