105 f
and deeply researched tunes relate in differ- ent ways to the Great War.
It opens poignantly with Highland Sol-
dier, collected by George Butterworth, who was himself killed at the battle of the Somme. Sweeney subsequently takes us on an emotional journey that encompasses vari- ous different backgrounds – there are tunes from Belgium, France and Germany, involving marches, laments and dance melodies. No jin- goistic, flag-waving Last Night Of The Proms triumphalism here… this is sensitive, fragile, emotive and extremely beautiful.
He calls in some favours from some of his old mates – Rob Harbron on concertina, Jack Rutter on acoustic guitar and Becky Price on piano pop up here and there and there is a certain grandeur to the Scottish pipe tunes, notably the sombre epic Battle Of The Somme. Nothing, though, quite matches the pairing of William Monk’s Eventide (Abide With Me) with the German Der Gute Kama- rad for pointed juxtapositioning. An impres- sive work.
samsweeneymusic.com Colin Irwin TOBY HAY
The Longest Day The State51 Conspiracy CON214CD
JIM GHEDI & TOBY HAY
The Hawksworth Grove Sessions Cambrian CAM013
Toby Hay’s 2017 debut The Gathering garnered plenty of attention and accolades in twangist circles – and sug- gested something of an intriguing new direction in locational solo guitar compo- sition. The subsequent release of Jim Ghedi’s A
Hymn For Ancient Land seemed to confirm the idea and heralded the arrival of two per- formers to watch.
Hay’s new release, The Longest Day, is even better than its predecessor. Like that one, it’s a record of places and movement, but Hay’s recent travels have taken him far beyond the Elan and Claerwen Valleys, as evinced by Leav- ing Chicago and Marvin The Mustang From Montana. The former piece is an engrossing dialogue in which Hay’s guitar gazes in Welsh, wide-eyed wonder at the saxophone-voiced American city, while the latter is a beautifully melodic assertion that “everything in America makes more sense on horseback.”
Greg Sterland’s sax is well to the fore on Late Summer In Boscastle – a slice of Blue Note-style jazz which is as mysterious and spellbinding as you’d expect from a piece written in Cornwall’s witchcraft capital, while David Grubb’s violin enlivens Bear’s Dance – a tune for a border collie that exhibits all the intelligence and acrobatics typical of the breed. Hear the title track on this issue’s fRoots 70 compilation
Recorded live over two days in a house in
Leeds, The Hawkworth Grove Sessions is an an easy-flowing non-verbal conversation in which reminiscences and laughs are shared through the wood and wires of Ghedi’s six- string and Hay’s twelve-string guitars. Joint travels are evoked in Arran To Aboyne and Goat Fell (the highest of the Arran moun- tains) while the pair’s love of a good histori- cal gag is revealed in The Earls Of Errol (who, Wikipedia informs me, hold the hereditary title of Chief of Clan Hay). The Marcher Lords (a suitably noble 3/4 composition) fosters the growing notion that Ghedi and Hay are, at least in in terms of their personal and musical empathy, the natural heirs to Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, while their compositional
styles perhaps reveal influences from the more recent and experimental duo guitar heroics of Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo.
What’s absolutely certain is that these two British musicians are both currently on a creative roll that shows no sign of slowing any time soon. Both are modest-natured and gently-affable men, yet both are possessed of a special talent that manifests spectacularly whenever they pick up a guitar.
tobyhay.bandcamp.com jimghedi.bandcamp.com
Steve Hunt
RACHEL NEWTON West Shadowside SHADOW03
Composer, singer and harpist Rachel Newton’s fourth solo album features simply her voice and acous- tic/electro harp accompani- ment. It was recorded in sunny weather in her late grandparents’ croft house on the NW coast of the Scot-
tish Highlands, and the spectacular views of the surrounding landscape have permeated the music, crystallising as vivid instrumental sound paintings that frame the traditional ballads. As with Newton’s previous work, here she ingeniously reinterprets songs we thought we knew.
Newton’s Scottish traditional makeover of Dolly Parton’s Jolene uses darkly lyrical harp strophes and Scottish traditional vocal ornamentation to relocate this classic country song from Nashville to Scotland. Jolene feels like she’s right at home dressed in Scottish musical clothes.
The female narrator of the Gaelic tradi-
tional song Gura Muladach Sgith Mi pines for her handsome lover who has left her to go sea- faring, and she comforts herself recalling his physical delightfulness. However, Newton edgi- ly offsets the major key vocal with a harmonic web of pensive minor key harp accompani- ment that evokes the woman’s inner fears.
The broken-hearted love song Once I
Had A True Love is turned on its head by Newton’s musical alchemy. Challenging the traditional interpretation of the song, New- ton’s bright, hopeful harp arpeggios and up- tempo surging rhythm suggest that being dumped by a faithless man may actually be a blessing in disguise! The female narrator relates that ‘my true love is married or other-
SANS
SANS Kulku Cloud Valley CV2018
It’s hard to believe this is the first studio album from SANS. There was a live album in 2014, and before that all the musicians had appeared on leader Andrew Cron- shaw’s The Unbroken Surface of Snow. But the slightly expanded group, now a
quintet, make music that seems as if they’ve simply dived deep into time. The mix of kan- teles, zithers, voices, duduk, saxes and clar- inets works with a natural, organic inevitabil- ity, and the music doesn’t so much unfold as curl off into a gorgeous distance. It has a wonderfully meditative quality, the voices of Sanna Kurki-Suonio and her daughter Erika Hammarberg shifting between harmonies that are ethereal and softly dissonant (as on Pursi–The Rowing Song), while Astele Oro carries echoes of Kurki-Suonio’s former band, Hedningarna.
Vocal or instrumental, it’s music that breathes, played without ego, finding what- ever serves the song or the melody. Every- thing feels utterly natural, whether it’s just a few musicians on a track or the entire ensemble. But although it sometimes seems delicate, almost elusive, there’s a very stud- ied foundation, built on years of playing together and pushing gently at the bound- aries where cultures entwine. Some pieces, like Kazvatti, take on an almost liturgical quality in the singing, a sacred hush that’s only intensified by the gently ringing kan- tele between verses. Kulku is lullingly melodic and softly adventurous, one that peers into the shady corners and finds the beauty, drawing it out into the light. An absolute triumph.
cloudvalley.com/SANS.htm Chris Nickson
wise dead’. Newton sings this in a way that subtly suggests that the woman is already cutting her losses, which transforms the last verse into a happy ending: ‘I’ll venture through England, through France and through Spain, and my life I’ll adventure!’
Genius. Hear a track on this issue’s fRoots 70 compilation.
rachelnewtonmusic.com Paul Matheson
Photo: Jim Sutherland
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