67 f


ducer and keyboardist Linas Rimsa, whose projects include crossovers between classical, jazz and ethnic music.


His Old Faith is based on the traditional religious chants and lyrics of the Russian Old Believers. Rimsa combines Arinushka’s gutsy, wild ethnic vocals (which, as things get hefti- er, almost approach Pussy Riot shout-shriek) with his artful programming work and acous- tic instruments: guitars, oboe, whistle, hurdy- gurdy and the traditional Russian single-reed horn pipe zhaleika, this last played by a prime animator in Russian roots music, Sergey Starostin. Much of the drumming sounds real too, though no drummer or percussionist is mentioned, and the overall feel is grainy, air- shifting and multi-faceted.


There have been some brutal, uncompre- hending attempts from third-rate remixers working with Eastern and Central European musics, but it seems to me that the collabora- tion of able and perceptive programmer- producers such as Rimsa, whose visions are wider and more subtle than the club dance- floor, is a promising way of getting the sounds and shapes of traditional music to today’s audience. (On record, that is; live, it can be hard to make a sampled-to-real bal- ance that convinces, visually at least).


Old Faith is likely to get international air- play and attention if sent to the right people, but that’s something the releasers of some other similarly impressive albums over the last few years from other Baltic and central European countries haven’t managed, or had the experience or contacts, to do. Music Export Lithuania, go for it!


linas_rimsa@yahoo.com The DVD is of a performance of Ethno-


sphere, a big concert-hall project combining folk music, classical and some jazz, directed by composer and conductor Andrey Doynikov for the Pokrovskiye Kolokola festi- val, featuring Arinuska and other Lithuanian and Russian folk vocal ensembles and indi- vidual musicians with the Chamber Orchestra of Lithuania. There’s very little other infor- mation on the pack or disc, but it turns out to be musically rich, melodic and powerful, including leads from Sergey Starostin singing and playing the gusli (Russia’s kantele-rela- tive) and his ex-Farlanders colleague, Bio Trio’s whistles, zhaleika and bagpipe player Sergey Klevenskiy. But the concert sounds better than it looks, performed in flat, unflattering lighting in a formal concert hall, so it’s a pity that the music doesn’t seem to be available as a CD, which could be listened to easily and repeatedly and would leave more to the imagination.


www.sutaras.lt Andrew Cronshaw


CLANNAD Nádúr ARC Music EUCD 2471


Clannad’s full-time return was marked with the gingerly retrospective Christ Church Cathedral album and DVD. Nádúr is their first collection of new material since 1998’s Land- marks, and with Pol Brennan’s return signals the acid test of a creative rebirth. Taking the Magical Ring and Macalla periods as baseline, Nádúr mixes the multi-layered, densely har- monic pop/folk excursions with subdued readings of traditional material. While high- tech production values exist, the overall approach is stripped down and the tone reflective. The mantra like Vellum offers massed harmonies in familiar sub-Harry’s Game territory while Brave Enough, with guest vocalist Duke Special, has the pop-rock sheen of In A Lifetime, and the instrumental Lamh ar Lamh occupies the regal aura of O’Carolan. Some welcome additions include gutsy lyrical social comment in The Fishing


Blues complete with back-porch harmonica. Setanta with its epic Celtic-rock-opera ten- dencies sounds akin to Horslips while TransAtlantic, co-written with author Colum McCann, is an emotive emigration power bal- lad with an impassioned Moya Brennan vocal, fragile yet edgy. Finally a sublime acoustic Citi na gCucmann signs off, its resignation palpa- ble. Nádúr positively upholds Clannad’s artis- tic resurgence.


www.arcmusic.co.uk www.clannad.ie


John O’Regan


THE FISHERMAN’S FRIENDS


One And All Mighty Village/Universal TFFCD02


Port Isaac’s high-profile male shanty-singing group, recipients of the Good Tradition Award in the 2011 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, suffered a terrible tragedy back in February when one of their number, Trevor Grills, and their tour manager Paul McMullen, both died following injuries sustained when a metal door fell and trapped them at the venue where they were due to perform. Under- standably, any future plans for the group were cancelled (all live dates for at least a year), even though they’d already recorded, and were shortly to release, their second album for Universal. Only now do they feel able to release it. It features Trevor singing lead on two tracks, one of which – Mary Anne – is being released as a single, with attendant video which turned out to be his final perfor- mance with the group.


Now I had distinctly mixed feelings about the group’s 2010 major label debut, which seemed both to give producers carte- blanche to swamp the group’s vocal talents with crashing over-arrangements and to sub- merge the shanty content within an at times inappropriate mix of pop and country- flavoured material. Even taking into account that the record wasn’t geared to maritime purists, it still didn’t do Fisherman’s Friends justice. But One And All (aptly re-named after the motto from the Cornish coat of arms) is a far more considered and well-balanced proposition, with an altogether more credi- ble representation of the potentially awk- ward crossover territory twixt the tourist mass-market and the seadog specialists. For a start, the production gives a significantly bet- ter profile to the group’s voices, both individ- ually and (when demanded) in their combined mighty power (though sadly we hear no


Fisherman’s Friends


instance of the latter in a cappella mode). And the musical arrangements are less bombastic, carried out with greater sensitivity and keen- er instrumentation, their attractive Celtic-folk flavour doubtless being down to the contribu - tions of John McCusker, Michael McGoldrick and Andy Cutting (and Leo Abraham).


A number of the selections are revisits of items from the three albums the group recorded in pre-Universal days, and receive suitably vital performances. Sweet Maid Of Madeira was freshly written by crew mem- bers Billy Hawkins and Jon Cleave, and the crew also make a very respectable job of Steve Knightley’s Cousin Jack, which clearly carries special resonances for them. However, I’d quibble with their overly ‘rousing’ summa- ry flypast of Bob Watson’s evocative Molly- mauk, and both Mary Anne and Ark For Bro- ken Hearts appear slight fare indeed along- side material of deeper import such as Andy Barnes’ Last Leviathan. But whatever the future holds for The Fisherman’s Friends as a performing unit, releasing One And All now as a lasting memorial for Trevor and Paul is surely the right decision.


www.thefishermansfriends.com David Kidman


KEL ASSOUF Tin Hinane Igloo Mondo IGL223


All too often, especially when discussing ‘world’ music, the word ‘fusion’ is thrown about with little regard for what it might mean. Just as adding jerk season to sausage and mash doesn’t mean fusion cuisine, so adding a cheap disco beat to a traditional music doesn’t mean fusion music. On these pages I’ve often bemoaned artists from vari- ous corners of the globe who think they can crack some kind of Western market by employing such tactics.


Thankfully, on this occasion, the oppo- site is the case. Tin Hinane, from Belgian/ Tuareg group Kel Assouf, is a genuine and sublime bit of fusion. The band were formed when Tuareg-in-exile Aboubacar Harouna hit the streets of Brussels and found a vibrant music scene with global roots. And so, with- out sacrificing the underlying Tuareg sound of it all, Tin Hinane manages to weave jazz flutes, Afrobeat rhythms and harpy koras seamlessly into its mix. Afrik in particular dis- plays a fine and original take on Afrobeat.


Elsewhere the songwriting is reminiscent of the folk balladry of the ’60s as on the title track and Alkas, which might be what Nick Drake would have sounded like had he been


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