@IanRobertM
I’ve enjoyed this taster track and look forward to the complete album. But I’ve eclectic taste which has widened since I joined the forum.
"The guttural penultimate track, “Upp Úr Øskuni,” is a thrilling outlier mixing growling beatboxing with visceral throat singing (it’s certainly Eivør’s most metal moment). She considers “Upp Úr Øskuni” a beacon of female empowerment and solidarity.
Eivør says. “I wanted it to be wild and untamed. It’s quite witchy. When I wrote the song, I imagined a coven of witches from the past and the present all supporting each other, chanting to each other across the chasm of time.”
[Season of Mist her record label for this album]
Lyrics in Faroese. There are lyrics and an English translation on YouTube.
The fiddle player Sam Sweeney has a short UK tour with his band. We saw them live at Lyme Regis on Weds. Lots of energy in these self-composed tunes. My young adult kids, who came with us as we are on holiday, enjoyed the playing and were admiring of the musicianship (they don’t listen to this kind of thing as a rule.)
No singing, but fine instrumental playing. Louis Campbell on Electric guitar, Ben Nicholls on double bass and a chap on acoustic guitar whose name escapes me, but a fine player. (He’s Archie Churchill-Moss on the tour, but not on Escape That.)
Ben Nicholls who plays double bass with Sam Sweeney’s band has a wonderful album of his own. Duets features Nadine Shah, Cara Dillon, Sam Lakeman, Seth Lakeman, Tim Eriksen, Kris Drever, Chris Vatalaro, Fay Hield, John Smith, Martin Simpson, Sam Sweeney, Chaim Tannenbaum, Patsy Reid, Evan Jenkins and Jon Boden. Quite folk-heavy, but not all folk perhaps. I realise I’ve seen Ben often playing in bands, but not realised his fabulous playing.
I first saw him touring with Fay Hield, I cannot recall who the drummer was, certainly gave a different meaning to drum and bass.
Then he kept popping up all over the place, part of a list here Ben Nicholls, then add Emily Portman, Beth Porter, the Full English.
Another on the to buy list…
As recommended by an old university friend; these live recordings are atmospheric. Spell Songs: gifts of light.
Apologies a photo of the album cover is not loading … it is now.
Entire album ‘Enn’ now released a couple of days ago and on Qobuz. Symphonic and melodic. Apparently if you read Icelandic then you can understand written Faroese, but the spoken language is harder to understand.
As a result of listening to Maddy Prior this morning as proposed by @Stokie, Roon suggested Trees. New to me as it predates the influence of university on my taste in music.
I posted Françoise Hardy’s cover of Trees ‘The Garden of Jane Delawney’ further up the thread. While it sounds like a traditional folk song, it’s an original composition by Bias (Tobias) Boshell, who later worked with Barclay James Harvest and the Moody Blues.
I didn’t discover Trees myself until I found their CDs in a now defunct record shop in Worcester.
Troy Donockley (Nightwish) and Adrian Edmondson (now an accomplished actor) together with other musicians formed The Bad Shepherds who made three albums playing a range of music, especially punk in a folk style.
A great live band at festivals.
If you can make it to London on 11th July Mike there is a Proxy Music concert at the Cadogan Hall, Linda watching, the new album and other Linda songs, from memory Kami Walbourne (Thompson) and Teddy Thompson will be playing along with Eliza Carthy and others.
