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band announce: “The Fretless is the Cana- dian fiddle foursome playing an essential part in the emerging movement main- streaming traditional Irish folk music.” They talk of “the deconstruction and transformation of the usual rhythmic, har- monic and structured arrangements of fid- dle styles around the world… pushing tra- ditional music to a new place… progres- sive traditional music.” Sawitsky laughs as I read this out: “We all come from a back- ground of traditional music,” he explained. “Whether it's Canadian or Scot- tish or Irish roots.” For Sawitsky too there is the music of his Ukrainian heritage to add to the mix. There aren’t many obvious examples in his music, though he tells me. “It just kind of comes through inherently.”
But along with this tradition, The Fret- less aim to push boundaries, to “decon- struct” and “transform.” “I think that’s always the goal,” Sawitsky explained. “To take whatever we’re doing to a different place.” While talking in the Traverse I had asked the band if their sound had changed since Ben Plotnick had joined. I remember a couple of voices saying ‘definitely.’ “I'm not sure whether that’s because of me or not,” Plotnick had countered. “The sound of the band has been evolving anyway.”
I brought this up to Sawitsky in our phone call. How has the sound been evolv- ing? And it seems to all go back to Water- bound, that debut EP created by a group of people who had barely worked togeth-
er before. “Looking at our first album that was very much an experiment for the four of us,” he recalled. “I think the longer we had that music to sit there and reflect on, it got us to look at the ideas we were try- ing to get across.” He talked of the differ- ent elements in fiddle tunes, of taking them in different directions. “I think with Waterbound we were just scratching the surface and I feel like with every album we've kind of been getting one layer deeper. I'm not too sure whether we're going to get to the point where we realise that's as far as we are going to go or if there is a never-ending pit of creativity that can just grow and change.”
he latest release from The Fret- less, Live From The Art Farm, was recorded in a barn in front of a live audience in upstate New York. “This was different for us from our previous recordings,” Sawitsky recalled. “In the studio you have the ability to change it, but we really got into the live sound, and into the four of us being a unit as opposed to individuals… it was like, ‘here is our sound,’ just capturing that.”
T Freeman is quoted on the website as
saying: “We’ve made a record of our favourite pub tunes, but transformed them in our world of arrangement and intrica- cy.” Live From The Art Farm is an album of ten tunes, with three originals by band members. To choose the non-original/tradi- tional tracks they didn’t rest on their lau-
rels though. They have their own large repertoire but still decided to research, seeking out tunes they didn’t know, tunes that aren’t the standard. “We all kind of agreed that Irish music was a big influence on all four of us and it has a huge influence in Canada and the US,” Sawitsky explained. They also reckoned that everywhere they travel there is an Irish pub, so it obviously had the farthest reach.
The three original tracks on the album come from very different places, offering warm and varied sounds, attitudes and influences. Plotnick’s Holton Alan Moore’s was “inspired by an almost electronic music influence into a slower melody,” and writ- ten in just a few hours as the band chilled downstairs. Bixie’s Jig, on the other hand, was taken from a ton of tunes that Sawit- sky had written throughout the year and is named happily after a dear friend, Darla Biccum. And as for the cleverly titled Cli- mate Change’s Reel, Sawitsky suspects that is a title that Trent Freeman has been carry- ing for a long time. It’s an upbeat skip of a tune, belying its name, enjoying the pun. Of course, these few words don’t do this album justice. I humbly suggest you stream it, YouTube it, then buy it. The Fretless are in the process of planning a Europe/ Ire- land/ UK tour next Spring. You could pick up a signed copy then, just sayin’…
You heard The Killavil Fancy from Live At The Art Farm on last issue’s fRoots 69.
thefretless.com F
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