67 f All good sessions need a show-stopping


ballad and the one we’re treated to here is a stunner. The traditional Irish ballad Parting Glass is given a gentle, loping arrangement by guitarist Donogh Hennessy, and Pauline Scan- lon’s warm, tender vocal just lets the lacrima rerum of it all slowly soak in. Though I’ve heard this song many times before, this version is so utterly beautiful, it moved me to tears.


www.mariefieldingmusic.com Paul Matheson


SUISTAMON SÄHKÖ Suistamo Electricity Kihtinäjärvi K3JCD008


The fourth CD since 2013 in Anne-Mari Kivimäki’s series describing the life of Suistamo in Karelia and its hasty evacuation on becom- ing part of Russia.


The making of these CDs forms part of Suistamo: The Laboratory Of Tradition, her Sibelius Academy artistic doctoral thesis. In the 1930s hydro-electricity arrived in the Suis- tamo region, so to evoke that, and transform- ing a descriptive project into a real, hefty band, Suistamon Sähkö (Suistamo Electricity). Joining Kivimäki’s voice and characteristic bellows-chugging melodeon style (Kimmo Pohjonen has certainly opened up ideas among Finnish accordeonists) are Eero Grundström’s hefty electronic sounds, pro- cessing, archive sampling and rhythm-making, and the voices of Grundström, Kivimäki’s Puhti duo partner Reetta-Kaisa Iles and Tuo- mas Juntunen.


Whereas its predecessor A Closed-down


Village probably worked best with the photo exhibition it was connected with, this one is very strong as just audio, and grows with each listen as details reveal themselves in what must have been intensive studio work by sound engineer and co-producer Grund- ström. Its insistent patterns and melodic phrases, dark wild nightmarishness, restless high-energy industrial power, fierce and silky vocals and danceability could well evoke comparisons with Trä-period Hedningarna, and that’s no bad thing indeed, particularly if they can carry it off, without too obvious lap- toppery, as a live band.


www.puhti.eu Andrew Cronshaw


ŞIMDI ENSEMBLE & MICHEL GODDARD


Eternal Love Dreyer Gaido (Eastern Voices) DGCD21095


At the moment I’m helping prepare for publi- cation a book of articles on the history of pop- ular music in Turkey. I was a fool to take it on as it takes much time, yet I’m happy I did as I’ve learned quite a lot in the process; includ- ing that Anatolian maqams and rhythms have been steadily Westernised over the last couple of hundred years. Originally the maqams were in relative not fixed pitch and included microtones as an essential part of their struc- ture, and the rhythms could be long and com- plex. Nowadays, the majority of Anatolian maqams have been lost (the tradition was more oral than written) and those that survive have been temperised and written down as if they were by Westernised composers. The rhythms have been simplified too into smaller Western-type units. The late Ottoman state and especially the Kemalist state urged this process on as part of their modernist and nationalist project of making traditional music accessible to the people as a whole.


So when I listen to Eternal Love my ears are thinking in what ways this is a Western- ised product (and is that a good or bad thing)? And it seems to me that despite not


Suistamon Sähkö


being a commercial album per se, it does very much fall into Western tonality and that’s not a good thing. Michel Goddard’s playing (ser- pent, tuba and bass) in particular seems tonal, jazz-influenced and incongruous. The title Eternal Love would be hard to pull off except maybe for John Coltrane. The playing is discretely fine in itself, ditto the singing – while sounding rather plummy in that pecu- liar Anatolian modern Sufiesque way, as though the singer is trying to conceal any- thing personal behind what they feel is the appropriate persona (I wonder what Anato- lian Sufi singing sounded like in the lost and distant past). The production is clean and proper and also unadventurous.


It would be nice for a record of Anato- lian Sufi-inspired music to transcend the genre (which mostly spreads between touristy kitsch and academic dryness). In his best tunes, Mercan Dede does just that, here I’m afraid that ¸


Simdi Ensemble have played


safe and the result is a record which is pleas- ant but not cosmically wonderful. That said, I like the delicate rhythm, lever harp and ney playing which underscores many of the tracks, to the extent that I’d rather the record were all Anatolian instrumentals.


www.dreyer-gaido.de Nick Hobbs


KANAKO HORIUCHI & FALAYE SAKHO


Hana Umui – Une Pensée De Fleur Big Mouth Records BM-004


MALTESE ROCK


Downtown Parade Music from Okinawa MfO-001


There’s been a surprising number of Japanese/ African collaborations over the years, but fewer, with some notable exceptions, featur- ing Okinawan musicians. This album, from sanshin player and vocalist Hanako Horiuchi and Senegalese kora player and singer Falaye Sakho, is probably the most genuine and best collaboration yet. Originally from Hokkaido in the north of Japan, Horiuchi headed south to study under some greats of Okinawan music, becoming proficient at playing tradi- tional songs. An adventurous soul, she embarked on a self-financed world tour tak- ing in Senegal where she stayed for six weeks. It was there she first met Sakho, and returned last year to record this album. The two share pretty much equal billing musically, with Senegalese traditional songs combined


with Okinawan, but cleverly arranged by Horiuchi into a whole, integral piece of music. The sounds of the sea, birds, and gen- eral background noise add to a joyous atmo- sphere of a duo bouncing off and encourag- ing each other, with occasional djembe and backing vocals.


livebarbigmouth.com/bigmouthrecords/


Maltese Rock pride themselves on musi- cally revitalising the famous downtown mar- ket area, Sakaemachi, in Naha, the main city in Okinawa. This album carries on in much the same way from their previous Downtown Dance. There’s little overtly Okinawan, but what they do is convey the atmosphere of a bustling, boisterous, colourful market that has always absorbed influences from Asia and the world. Living up to their name, (Maltese is their plural of the word multi) gypsy, Japanese chindon, blues, Okinawan music and more are combined at an often frenetic pace, with occasional abrupt changes that add to the general anarchic atmosphere. Lead singer Morito’s vocals could be com- pared to Tom Waits while their overall sound to that of the Pogues or The Men They Couldn’t Hang. Whatever it is, it’s different from any other music from Okinawa but probably couldn’t have been made anywhere else. musicfromokinawa.com


Both albums available via farsidemusic.com


Sebastian Spiller


MAIRI ORR Jenny Does Burn Own label, MMO002CD


This is a debut album of original songs from an Edinburgh-based singer-songwriter, released courtesy of Creative Scotland and Kickstarter. Mairi’s songs are in a style strong- ly influenced by Americana and bluegrass. Her low, bluesy vocal is well-matched to this style of music, as is the excellent accompani- ment on guitar, double-bass, dobro, banjo, fiddle, mandolin, low whistle and percussion.


Some songs celebrate Mairi’s Highland roots, or tell tales from Scottish history. The best songs on the album – as you’d expect from country music – are the ones set in the painful present, expressing raw emotion. Just A Fallow Year is a beautiful song about the unheard grief of childlessness. Letting It Go describes the pathos of a dying romance: “not quite the lifetime we had planned to go”. Mairi is a talent to watch.


www.mairiorr.com Paul Matheson


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