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BRUCE COCKBURN Bone On Bone True North Records TND678


According to the press release, Bruce Cock- burn’s songwriting ran dry in 2011 after the release of Small Source Of Comfort. This was partly due to the birth of his daughter, but mainly because he was writing a mem- oir, Rumours Of Glory, which absorbed all his creative powers. The song drought was ended when he was invited to contribute a song to a documentary about Canadian poet Al Purdy.


I hadn’t heard of Al Purdy before, but the small sections of his work that Cockburn quotes during 3 Al Purdys are very striking. In fact, the song itself is the standout track on the album, conjuring up the image of a dishevelled looking man apparently ranting in the street when he’s actually declaiming Purdy’s poetry (“I’ll give you three Al Purdys for a twenty-dollar bill”!). I like Stab At Mat- ter a lot too, apart from the pun-tastic title; but Forty Years In The Wilderness doesn’t somehow have the incisiveness of songs like Pacing The Cage or Planet Of The Clowns. He’s a brilliant wordsmith, so he conjures up eloquently painted word pictures, but there aren’t many that grab my attention on this album, and (significantly for me), none that I’m tempted to learn myself.


Produced by longtime collaborator Colin Linden, there are some nice musical touches in the arrangements – like the flugelhorn on Mon Chemin and the accordeon on 3 Al Purdys – over the solid rhythm section of John Dymond and Gary Craig. Cockburn’s back to playing mostly acoustic guitar, using his driving finger-pick- ing style to great effect. Bone On Bone itself is a nice spiky instrumental.


It’ll please Cockburn’s loyal fans, but for


me it’s a bit of a place-holder. Think I’ll track down some of Al Purdy’s poetry, though.


brucecockburn.com Maggie Holland


ZENOBIA Blot En Ild Go’ Danish Folk Music GO0217


A decade and now four albums into their career, Zenobia are the most Danish of bands to emerge in a generation. That’s quite a claim about a trio whose music is all original, but it’s there in the feel, no matter whether the words Charlotte Støjberg sings are new or old. There’s a very hymnal quality to much of the music, but the crossover between hymns and folk music is strong throughout the Nordic world. There are exceptions, of course, like the more dramatic En Rose Og En Tjørn, but even that has a hushed grandeur in parts, or the breathless celebration of Fredag, with its lovely brassy trombone.


Louise Støjberg’s piano work is the foun- dation of the band, with Mette Katrine Jensen Stærk’s accordeon providing plenty of bass and delicious ornamentation. A couple of famous odes to Denmark – Hans Christian Andersen’s I Danmark Er Jef Født and the Nielsen/Hoffman composition Den Danske San Er Un Ung Blond Pige – get fresh melodies, a new coat of paint for a new cen- tury. Even Johs’ Bryllupsvals, Stærk’s celebra- tion of her marriage last year, is an ineffably Danish waltz. There’s a dancing quality to the instrumentals here, but that’s no surprise; 18th Century dance music, with the head up, is another of the founding pillars of Danish music. As a farewell, the lush Vigevise makes a sweet close to the disc. There’s a lot of deep, noble beauty in Zenobia’s music, and if this is nationalism, it’s gentle and loving.


www.zenobia.nu Chris Nickson


Estbel


ESTBEL Saar Nordic Notes NN092


As Britain stumbles, trips and falls on its way out of Europe, other countries forge closer links. Estbel (the hint is in the name) is a band of two Estonian women and two Belgian brothers, who came together during a week on an island, Saarema, off the Estonian coast. The accordeon and guitar of the brothers cre- ate both rhythmic foundation and embellish- ment to the voices of the two women, along with their Estonian and Flemish bagpipes and fiddle. Tracks build, piece by piece, with an ebb and flow that’s quite captivating, and a sound that might have its origins in two countries (the influence of Belgian’s acoustic movement is evident in the playing of the Dhoore brothers) but ends up with a singular identity that transcends any nationality. There’s plenty of sophistication in the compo- sition, but especially in the execution, which teases the most out of the ideas and makes use of the possibilities of the lineup. Two voices that work so well together, and that Estonian sense of sparseness melds well with the others to create music that’s already something special on this debut. Saar, Estoni- an for island, is an apt album title, because this is a band that’s firmly established its own home with ties to countries, but a citizenship and music all its own. Outstanding first effort, and the island’s future looks very rosy indeed. As part of Europe, of course. You know, unlike us…


www.estbel.ee Chris Nickson


MOIRAI Here And Now WildGoose 421CD


Having heard them in one of their first club performances, then their first album, Side- ways, and now this second release, it is pleas- ing to be able to report the considerable progress and development made by Moirai. Of course, Jo Freya always brings a lot of sax beefiness and musical insight and adventur- ousness to the bands she plays with – what a long journey it has been for her for those of us who first heard her playing recorder as a schoolgirl in the early incarnation of the Old Swan Band – but there is more than this in the evolution of this band.


Though every instrumental has its sturdi- ness, it does not mean that they cannot play with subtlety as a couple of poignant mazurkas show. Elsewhere on the tunes there are some thoughtfully different chord accom- paniments and some well known tunes played in different modal settings.


For all that, it is the songs and their treat -


ments which impress most. Moirai’s earlier repertoire included some rather whimsical pieces but here all the songs show their strength in different ways. Jo contributes two that she has written, and a song like The Bel- lamont Sisters by Sarah Matthews could only be written by someone who has a deep under - standing of traditional song and ballads.


The real triumph of the album is the way


they approach The Bedmaking, probably the best of the recordings of this lively song. The way they intersperse the words and tunes throughout with various versions of The Cuckoo’s Nest, their arrangements, har- monies, accompaniments could be regarded as prime examples of how to be creative with respect to the tradition.


There is not a weak track on the album. www.wildgoose.co.uk


Vic Smith VARIOUS ARTISTS


Spiritual Music From The Hebrides – Live At An Lanntair, Isle of Lewis An Lanntair Records LANNCD005


This live recording saw a coming together of Scottish Gaelic traditional singers and musi- cians, classical musicians from the Scottish Ensemble, and ecclesiastical a cappella psalm- singers and precentors from the Islands of Lewis and Harris, in a programme of religious and spiritual music. (All profits from this recording will be donated to the Bethesda Hospice in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.)


Scottish traditional and folk-country arrangements of Gaelic hymns and psalms are sung by Isobel Ann Martin, Jenna Cumming, Chrissie Morrison and Emma MacLeod, with tasteful instrumental support on fiddle, gui- tar, keyboards, violin, viola, cellos and double bass, The album opens with a traditional Gaelic slow air performed by Highland fiddle maestro Duncan Chisholm, accompanied by the Scottish Ensemble string quartet.


Also included in this album/concert are four stunning examples of traditional Presby- terian Gaelic psalm singing, a uniquely Scot- tish sean nòs ancient vocal style, developed over hundreds of years as part of Presbyterian Church services in the northern Hebrides. The precentor leads the choir in a protean, ele- mental surge of sung scripture, generating wave upon wave of an oceanic sound that makes your spine tingle, your hairs stand on end, and your soul ache with the acute yet blissful sensation of a God-shaped hole.


www.birnamcdshop.com Paul Matheson


Photo: Ward Dhoore


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