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ing of Sticks and the driving thump of Childe- grove are met by pieces with a more reflec- tive pallor, such as the mellow Jamaica and the elegant, piano-led Newcastle.
While this is bound to have some re- enactment dancers wringing their wide- brimmed hats, I personally believe you haven’t lived until you’ve heard Goddesses rendered as a dub shuffle. Four years in the making, this is an exquisitely rendered and endlessly satisfying piece of work.
chrisgreendigital.bandcamp.com Clare Button
WASSIM HALAL Le Cri De Cyclope Buda 3CD 860341
Supported by AFAC (the Arab Cultural Fund), Le Cri De Cyclope, by Franco-Lebanese percus- sionist Wassim Halal together with many singing and playing guests, is a triple (!) CD with a Terry Gilliam-esque cover (by Benjamin Efrati & Diego Verastegui) which suits it well. To say that it’s eclectic would be a gross understatement. Very possibly, Halal has never been near psychotropic drugs in his life but it wouldn't be so surprising if he spent a lot of time off his head either. It’s a daring record – reminiscent of Biota, The Pipes Of Pan At Joujouka, and, well, Yinon Muallem on acid. fRoots and The Wire don't have much overlap but Le Cri De Cyclope fits in both. On the one hand, it’s a record where experimentation and artistic risk-taking range freely; on the other, it’s mashed-up world music which draws on Middle-Eastern music, punk attitude, free-blowing jazz, gamelan and the arts of noise.
Two tracks stand out for me: De Zeus and the title track. Just about everything qualifies as interesting. The third CD, a percussion workout becoming a modern-music jam, grabs me the least. Not many of the tracks are entirely listenable, being a little too much like improvised experiments edited into a jagged whole rather than ideas fully worked out, but that rawness also gives the album provocative freshness.
If you’re into experimental world music (a lamentably neglected sub-genre), then this is one for you; if you’re looking for familiar listening of any kind, this is definitely not.
budamusique.com Nick Hobbs
BARRY PHILLIPS Notebook Barry Phillips Music BPM-062
This is a delightful instrumental album by cel- list and composer Barry Phillips. Nine of the tracks are self-composed and six are tradi- tional. Across the CD Barry is joined by twelve other musicians playing other instruments such as nyckelharpa, table and harpsichord, but the predominant flavour is stringed.
This is a listening album and by that I mean that it draws you into the different lay- ers, making you want to immerse yourself in them and follow the intricacies of the arrangements. I love the fact that there is definitely a Swedish flavour whilst the pieces have come about through his travels in Eng- land, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, India, Califor- nia and the people he has met along the way.
The artwork is simple but the packaging
is quality. The sleeve notes really add to this CD because they give you a flavour of the man himself, what he was working on at the time, where he was and how the tunes came about. In that sense it reads, or sounds, like a notebook, so the title is perfect.
barryphillipsmusic.com Jo Freya JOZEF VAN WISSEM
We Adore You, You Have No Name Con- souling Sounds SOUL0119
Brooklyn-based lutenist and composer Jozef Van Wissem has been releasing albums and collaborations for some years now, and this release seems like a good reason to take an overview of his work. First, let’s get away from the still-general opinion of the lute: a soft, gentle, multi-stringed instrument, used for stately dance tunes and mournful Eliza- bethan laments (as in 'Weepies, Breakfast of Campions’, one presumes…). In Van Wissem’s hands, about the only recognisable part is the many strings; electrified and acoustic, played with strength and power, the lute turns out to have elements missing from the mere six strings of the guitar.
In some ways Van Wissem’s approach to the classic repertoire is not a million miles from that of early John Fahey to the Delta blues. In tunes such as You Know That I Love You, which is based very loosely on a madri- gal of the same name written by Arcadelt in 1557, or Unto Thee I Lift Up Mine Eyes, a sara- bande from the Baroque composer Gaultier, small parts of the original appear and are repeated, varied and expanded upon to pro- duce something new. The founding minimal- ist composers Philip Glass and John Adams come to mind, and Spiro would recognise a kindred spirit, while the use of deep bass drum and percussion in Deliverance (no, of course not that one) bring the track into hardcore dance/trace territory. In contrast, When The Hour of Salvation Comes The Heavens Are Made To Flow With Honey moves into utter simplicity, but the kind of hesitation that comes with stealth and Gary Lucas-like Chinese-styling conviction. There is also chanting: low and multi-tracked chant- ing, from the mildly sinister drinking song Bow Down to the plain sinister Deliverance. On paper, all of this could spill into Wicker Man ludicrosity, but it always appears at the right moment to provide a counterpoint to the spare lute playing.
What characterises Van Wissem’s work, particularly shared with Fahey, is the com- plete world he creates on a deceptively small ground. To quote Susan Sontag (writing
Sver
about plastic arts, but you get the idea): "The most attractive works of art are those which give us the illusion that the artist had no alternatives, so wholly centred is he in his style…" It’s no mean feat to achieve this, but in his whole body of work, including this album, he does precisely that.
consouling.be Chris Frederick
SVER Reverie Folkhall FHR002CD
There are so many skilful fiddle-led bands in the Nordic countries that it can be hard to write something new about all of them. Well, I’ll tell you about this one, Sver.
It’s a Norwegian and Swedish quintet, in existence for ten years, and this is its fourth album. Its fiddlers are Olav Luksengård Mjel- va (of The Nordic Fiddlers Bloc and Rydvall Mjelva) on ordinary and hardanger fiddle and Anders Hall (also of the Bloc) on fiddle and viola, so the quality of the fiddling is a given. The sound is thickened by Leif Ingvar Ranøien on two-row melodeon and given beefy drive by Adam Johansson’s guitars, which occasionally take single-string electric lead, and Jens Linell’s drumming.
The album was recorded live in the stu- dio “completely free of chopping”, as the notes say. What the notes don’t do is identify the player of the jubilant sax lead on the final track, Love Boat, but it’s undoubtedly one from the wider lively and co-operative scene of which Sver is part – perhaps, I’d venture, from the fiddles, reeds and more big-band FAB (Folk All-In Band).
The tunes, mostly composed by Mjelva and Johansson, move between exuberant drive and melodious pause, the sort of dynamics that make an audience really listen as the band rouses it into dancing. And the reaction to their showcase at last year’s WOMEX showed that happens even in a seat- ed venue, as I’d guess it’s doing on the long US tour they’re on as I write this review.
sverfolk.com Andrew Cronshaw
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