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SALAMANDER Como La Rosa SALAM002
This is the second release from Gothenburg- based trio Salamander. They perform a mix- ture of Jewish Sephardic, folk and early music on fiddle, bouzouki, guitar and melodeon and they make a very pleasant sound. They possess a fine singer in Marita Johansson whose relaxed, rich, rhythmically strong singing is excellently supported by the band. Their source material is eclectic but always complementary. They even include an Abbots Bromley Horn Dance as well as the Breton- sounding Une Jeune Fillette. At times sound- ing like Lo Jai, they may not be a band to set the world alight nevertheless they have released an excellent album for kicking off your shoes, pouring a glass of wine and chill- ing out to.
salamandermusic.eu Mark T.
LANDLESS Bleaching Bones Humble Serpent HSCD001
For anyone engaged in chronicling this ‘local music from out there’ malarkey, the inex- orable rise of the new wave of Irish traditional music (NWOITM, anyone?) has provided many of this decade’s thrills. The likes of Lankum, Lisa O’Neill, Slow Moving Clouds and Ye Vagabonds all share a deeply-rooted authen- ticity yet none could be accused of following a generic trad-session course or, for that matter, of sounding much like each other.
Latest contenders Landless are Lily
Power, Meabh Meir, Ruth Clinton and Sinead Lynch – an unaccompanied vocal harmony group based in Dublin and Belfast. Formed in 2013, this is their debut long-player (follow- ing an eponymous EP, released in 2014). Their patience has been rewarded with a recording that heralds something both strikingly dis- tinctive and already fully-formed.
Landless
Recorded live, in large part in churches in Howth and Cork, there’s a tangible venera- tional quality in these performances, but it’s a reverence for the songs, their composers/car- riers and the messages they convey, rather than bootless piety. Their material is a well- sequenced mix of traditional (The Trees They Grow Tall, All Around The Loney-O, Buried In Kilkenny), settings of historic poetry (includ- ing Robert Burns’ Lassie Lie Near Me and Ca’ The Yowes) and newer songs by Peggy Seeger & Ewan MacColl and Liam Weldon.
A beautiful solitary listening experience, Bleaching Bones also provides a rich source of inspiration to anyone interested in harmony singing – whether that be within a folk club context, a community choir, or elsewhere. They’ve yet to tour extensively outside of Ire- land, but this recorded evidence suggests that, like the Voice Squad 30 years ago, Land- less might well possess the potential to cap- ture the hearts and minds of UK and US festi- val audiences too.
landless.bandcamp.com Steve Hunt
KIRSTY LAW Young Night Thought Toun TOUNDCD02
This is the second album from the Edinburgh- based singer-songwriter Kirsty Law. It was designed to be part of an audio-visual film/art project collaboration. So, it is dra- matic and engaging, conjuring a Scottish folk-jazz/folk-rock idiom that is percussive and arresting. Kirsty’s low-register, assertive Scots vocal is well-suited to carrying this style of music, as exemplified by her acoustic folk- jazz arrangement of the Scots traditional song My Rovin’ Eye with harp and percussion accompaniment. Kirsty’s distinctive vocal delivery also contrasts well with the three guest vocalists on this album. Underneath The Sycamore features a guest vocal from Karine Polwart, duetting with Kirsty against a lurid sonic backdrop of piano and percussion:
the resulting soundscape is Scots trad meets Brecht/Weill. The Iron Railing features a psychedelic rock vocal from Carla Easton with harp accompaniment: Scots trad meets The Velvet Underground. Fledgeling features a superb Ulster-traditional guest vocal from Jarlath Henderson in what is (for me) the standout track on the album.
It’s all very striking and truly original. It makes me want to see the art show-cum- film installation that it was designed to accompany.
kirstylaw.com Paul Matheson
ANNA CSIZMADIA Dänótäm Én Fonó FA 402-2
A moving suite of slow, deep, evening shad- ows, all masks and artifice removed. Authen- ticity is lightly worn but has been rooted with commitment and verve in the furrows of the Hungarian-speaking areas of the Vojvodina in northern Serbia. Traditional, soulful music. Pressurised nostalgia. Essence.
Opener Rëgge Vän Härmät, an element of Anna Csizmadia’s trove of material from her Kupuszina home, immediately showcases her expansive, pure, but beguilingly self-con- scious vocals through a singularly impressive ensemble of fiddle and tambura chamber trio.
This is a singer who embodies song, without the ego of ownership but with an organic intelligence that is both familial and personal. Idegen Földre Ne Siess is just such a wonderfully confusing lament, unafraid to reveal, through its vulnerable arrangements, an inner strength – her voice, alone and breathless, pauses inside the summoned space, with steel.
In the unusual tradition of the Vojvodi- na, Hungarian folk music exists despite its location, quixotically untouched by other influences, and revealing in its finest record- ings a resistant and historical authenticity born of a determined and centuries-long cul- tural, political and linguistic siege mentality. This collection has neither the flamboyant experimentation of Vojvodina native Félix Lajkó’s avant-garde fiddle recordings, nor – thankfully – any hint of Balkan turbo folk.
Czismadia’s aching, sighing sentiments are strung against arrangements of a distant rumble, before being roused by quiet tambu- ra excellence into a gentle grace. A gathering storm. No flash.
There’s a brief interjection of subtle but undeniably starry dust from cimbalom mae- stro Kálmán Balogh, and magical playing upon the furulya wooden flute by Zoltán Juhász. All is finely judged, minimalist, and immersive, in an often bleak – but gripping – album of pastoral epic.
fono.hu John Pheby FAIRPORT CONVENTION
What We Did On Our Saturday Matty Grooves MG2CD055
“I think,” imparted Dave Pegg about an hour before he went on stage, “after fifty years we’ve earned the right to be fab.” There’s a pause “Mr. Thompson’s in particu- larly fine fettle.”
Indeed, fab they were and yes, RT was in fine fettle, right on both counts. August 2018 was Fairport’s 50th birthday, and it was quite a party. They gathered those who were and are part of it, as well as a few choice friends to celebrate; those blown off the mountain were fondly remembered. The results – high- lights – are captured here over a double CD,
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