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Decoding Knapp’s musical antecedents, it is the name ‘Bjork’ which springs most immediately to mind (nowhere more emphatically than in her enunciation of “Ice- land,” in Shipping Song) but there are deeper undercurrents to explore. The improvised vocals and noise that climax the title track reminded me of Alison O’Donnell and United Bible Studies (check out their Lover’s Ghost on YouTube, kids) while Hushabye provides an essential next stop for everyone who loves Jackie Oates’ Lullabies album (and that’s everyone, right?). Her mining of traditional balladry for poetic ciphers recalls both Emily Portman (particularly Two Ravens, graced by the unmistakable guitar of Mr M Carthy) and Lal Waterson, whose Black Horse, the only non-original song, features guest vocals from Marry Waterson and James Yorkston.
Her obvious delight in language (“Octo- ber shoo’d the breeze...” “verdant replen- dency,”) suggests echoes not only of Seamus Heaney, but of Robin Williamson and Alas- dair Roberts. The latter lends his familiarly deft guitar and entrancing vocals to Hunt The Hare (Parts 1 and 2). These tracks first appeared on Knapp’s self-released Hunt The Hare EP, and so number among the most instantly accessible tunes here.
More than a passing mention should go
to Knapp’s husband, collaborator and pro- ducer Gerry Diver, a man with an exponen- tially growing reputation, thanks to his own Speech Project, and his role in Sam Lee’s Mer- cury-nominated Ground Of Its Own. Lisa Knapp’s Hidden Seam looks set to both gar- ner critical acclaim and divide public opinion in equal, if not greater measures than the Lee album. We’re all going to be hearing a lot more of Lisa Knapp over the next year, folks.
www.lisaknapp.co.uk Steve Hunt ÇI ˘ GDEM ASLAN Mortissa Asphalt Tango CD ATR 4313
I’m going to open with a bit of a rant. This album is a major work in traditionally- based music, and should deservedly bring the artist who made it to international fame – it’s already straight into the World Music Charts Europe top 10. She lives in
England, and it was recorded in London. If UK folk festivals weren’t mostly booked by ostriches in blinkers, this album would quicly result in her 2014 diary rammed with home dates as she became a massive draw.
Cigdem Aslan
Çi˘gdem Aslan was born in Istanbul to Kurdish Alevi parents and studied the music of Turkey’s minority communities. For quite a while she’s lived in London and worked with veteran Balkan outfit Dunav and klezmer band She’koyokh (who make key contribu- tions here), but this is her first big solo fea- ture. And I do mean big!
There seems to be a growing reawaken- ing of interest in the music that was common to Greeks, Turks (and Armenians and Levan- tines) in the years before what the Greeks refer to as ‘the catastrophe’ of Smyrna 1922. Echoes of this shared music, the pre-history of rebetika from the Cafe Amans of Istanbul, Smyrna and Thessaloniki at the turn of the last century, can be heard in its historical form on last year’s To What Strange Place Is This compilation, and in the works of groups like Greece’s Loxandra and Turkey’s Cafe Aman Istanbul (both featured in fR 348). It’s the soundtrack to the days leading up to books like Giles Milton’s Paradise Lost and Louis de Bernière’s Birds Without Wings.
Disconcertingly, it opens with a rather
over-jaunty duet with the slightly oleaginous voice of Paul Melas where the ensemble play- ing is almost too miraculously tight, but after that we’re off into the meat of it – slower soulful tracks like To Dervisaki and Bir Allah, sprightlier ones like Trava Vre Manga Kai Alani or Ferece (either of which would have made a much better opener, frankly), and one-off beauties like the lullaby Nenni, accompanied only by the fretless guitar of Tahir Palali. It’s a marvellously paced voyage, right the way through to the heart-rending and probably unfollowable santouri (ham- mered dulcimer)-led closer S’Agapo. Now you know why they call rebetika the Greek blues!
Throughout, the varied accompanying ensembles and soloists are really on the case – top class bouzouki, ba˘glama, santouri, clar- inet, violin, guitar, percussion – a lively but well-drilled machine. The production by Çi˘gdem herself with Nikolaos Baimpas, who also contributed a lot of the arrangements, is magnificent, with everything just in the right place to let her voice – which often reminds me of the brilliant (and namechecked) Bren- na MacCrimmon – soar over it.
The class packaging, in a triple gatefold digipak with good English notes by manager/ promoter Sebastian Merrick and lyric transla- tions, reflects the exemplary attention to detail that went into the music and production.
A breathtaking debut. You can hear Sto
Kafe Aman on this issue’s fRoots 46 set.
www.asphalt-tango.de
Ian Anderson
Photo: Handan Erek
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