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AMADOU DIAGNE Ligéey Long Tale Recordings LTR1502

Former member of the National Orchestra of Senegal and percussionist for such as Youssou N’Dour, Amadou Diagne comes from a griot lineage. He has lived in the UK for the last ten years. This is his third album as a guitar player and songwriter, and as is the norm, his aim is to blend the traditional and new, western and West African into something modern and original. His flexible and soulful voice is the main attraction – sometimes breathy, some- times commanding, well served both by his variety of songs, written in conjunction with bassist Mark Smulian, and by the inventive strokes of Smulian’s arrangement and pro- duction. Rhythmic flashes of Cuba, plunging and soaring string-pad arabesques and heavy rock thump catch the ear. Substantial, clever.

www.amadoudiagne.com Rick Sanders SPILLEMAND!

Musik Fra Carl Nielsens Barndom Go’ Danish Folk Music GO0715

Carl Nielsen remains Denmark’s foremost composer, not only for his classical work, but also for the songs that are such a part of Dan- ish culture. But growing up on the island of Funen, he was surrounded by folk music, especially the influence of his father, fiddler Niels Jørgensen. Nielsen’s first composition was a polka, quite aptly the opening tune on this CD from Christoffer Thornhauge Dam and Nikolaj Forskov Erkisen, a pair of fiddlers themselves. Here they give Nielsen’s child- hood a music context, with a number of com- positions by his father and others, as well as one traditional piece (all instrumental apart from Dybt I Havet, set for a pair of unaccom- panied – and seemingly uncredited – female voices). It’s as good an idea as any to celebrate the great man’s 150th birthday, and show that his roots were deep in the Danish soil rather than in the artistic ideas of Europe. Oh, and there’s some pretty great Danish folk music and fiddle playing as part of the package.

www.nikolaiforskov.dk/fiddler Chris Nickson

THE LYRE ENSEMBLE The Flood Lyre-of-Ur 002

The Lyre Ensemble are led by award-winning composer and singer Stef Conner, previously with The Unthanks. They perform songs based upon Mesopotamian texts from as early as the fourth millennium BC on voice and lyres in English, Sumerian and Babyloni- an. Inevitably with music that goes this far back there has to be a large amount of sup- position when it comes to tone, speed, rhythm and delivery of the pieces, if, indeed, they were ever meant to be sung.

Stef makes no great claims as to authen- ticity stating that the music is contemporary , sometimes composed, sometimes improvised. However, the tunes she writes are based on Mesopotamian modes, whilst Andy Lowings, the chief lyre player, has spent many years researching the construction and tuning of these instruments and his playing is based on the playing of lyres today in the Middle East and Africa. Andy gets some interesting sounds out of his lyres: at times they rattle and buzz like a mbira, at other times the low notes bend like an oud.

What they have come up with is very impressive. The arrangements are natural, sparse and reflect the tone of the texts. Con- ner’s voice is versatile, at times sounding like Emma Kirby singing Hildegard Von Bingen, at

Amadou Diagne

other times like Viv Corringham’s processed rembetica. Many of the texts they have cho- sen still reflect modern life, such as the proverb Don’t Choose A Wife During A Festi- val! These choices have the clever effect of shoehorning the ancient into the modern.

If I have one criticism of this recording it is the lack of the complexities of Macedonian dance music (rhythms with cycles of five, seven and eleven beats). Dance and song have been so intertwined in this region that I am sure even the earliest singers would have been drawn to dance rhythms. Inevitably with so little to go on musically from this period, the CD will communicate as much about the performers and their choices as the era itself. This is a fascinating piece of work which I believe will also, in itself, stand the test of time.

www.lyre-ensemble.com Mark T

DELLA MAE Della Mae Rounder Records 11661-0135-2

With the departure of bassist Shelby Means, the all-female, Boston-based stringband Della Mae is down to four members. That’s not what gives the new, eponymous disc an ambience unlike their previous two releases. The more recent of these, 2013’s This World Oft Can Be, produced by bluegrass-guitar wizard Bryan Sutton, felt downright lovable, exuding amiability and generosity as it fash- ioned a contemporary take, like no other, on the spirit of Appalachian music. Then it was still possible to think of Della Mae as some- thing like a bluegrass outfit.

This time around, the producer is Jacquire King, out of the pop realm. While he hasn’t turned Della Mae into a rock band, he has pushed the sound in a more precise, groove-driven direction, occasioning the sen- sation now and then that the performance is coming in from a greater emotional distance than one would have anticipated from them. In interviews, guitarist/ lead vocalist/chief songwriter Celia Woodsmith intimates the band’s ambition to break into the main- stream like the Lumineers, who are called ‘folk’ by the same people who so pronounce Mumford & Sons. Well, you can’t blame any- body for that, I suppose, but here we get the first hints of what may be lost, namely the band’s uniquely sunny nature (no doubt still present on stage). Yet there’s enough to admire. No mistaking, for instance, that the opener, Boston Town, is The Rebel Girl for the 21st Century. On High Away Gone the brave

fusion of mountain sound and African-Ameri- can spiritual thrills and astounds. But other songs, such as Rude Awakening and Long Shadow, are pop numbers, not particularly to my taste, notwithstanding the fiddles, man- dolins, and folkish harmonies.

If I don’t anticipate losing my heart to this album, I can attest that the more one hears it, the more one notices and appreci- ates (with some relief) Della Mae’s enduring strengths, which include but are not limited to Woodsmith’s fierce but controlled singing and Kimber Ludiker’s shady-grove fiddling. I guess we’ll find out where this is going when the next release rolls around.

www.dellamae.com Jerome Clark

THE MATHER ROBINSON BAND A Carousel For Fools Own label

Rough-house Salfordian mix of blather, smoke and Irish-inspired melody from Dave Mather and Pete Robinson, a pair of Mancu- nian cultural soakers who revel in keeping a weather eye on life, lore and all things local. If the Faces had come from the rain-soaked streets of Manchester and been into folk sources they’d have sounded like this – Math- er and Robinson are the northern equivalent of unplugged diamond geezers. They treat the tradition as something to be used, adapt- ed and refocused liberally, so they up the alcohol-sodden side to more stately bucolic numbers like Wild Mountain Thyme and John Barleycorn showing that back-street boozers can be as celebratory as any rustic ale house.

In fact the whole appeal of this album is

in the everyday, its easy way with a jig dragged into the riff of a chorus or a reel leaping from a middle eight. Huge approval for flute player Anthony Quinn (no, not that one) who keeps the tunes bubbling and gur- gling like a mountain stream. Paradise Street shows their skill at crafting a hearty, stomp- along, communal creation from old Liverpool port doggerel, while The Vicar Of Barton Wood is heavy on humour in a Mike Harding manner. Their love of their own backyard is celebrated in the fond My Old Town which chronicles the changes these two have seen over, heck, 50 years. The song may reference Salford but the sentiments are universal.

Bet they’re a hoot at festivals! mather-robinson.bandcamp.com

Simon Jones

Photo: © Judith Burrows