BBC - Radio 3 - Awards for World Music 2005

ANDREW CRONSHAW (ENGLAND)

Full track details

Ochre

This isn't a CD that's going to make your next dinner party go with a swing. In some ways this is an experimental album and perhaps should even be viewed as a classical work, but the concept is fascinating and while demanding, the results offer moments of resounding beauty and subtle, meandering insights.

The instrumentalists are enticingly disparate, representing the likes of Syria, Greece, Wales and Ireland. The tunes are gently atmospheric, deep and spiritual, and Cronshaw's arrangements suitably fragile and tangential. It's exotic and mysterious - and it comes as a shock to realise that the music being played is actually English. We've long been used to Cronshaw's left field explorations, crossing musical cultures, but this idea of letting foreign musicians loose on the theme of the English tradition is a brilliant idea.

Whether it works or not is something that I suspect may be debated for some time, particularly as the original themes on which the pieces are based - including 'Lucy Wan', 'Broomfield Hill' and 'Lord Bateman' - are merely starting points and pretty much unrecognisable in the lilting perambulations that follow.

Cronshaw is there with his trusty zither (not to mention whistle, fujara, gu-cheng and ba-wu) to guide us angelically into a strangely soothing world where you imagine unicorns roam with wizards, the clouds are fluffy and everyone dresses in white. Ian Blake's clarinet and soprano sax flit friskily among other more wordly variations on a theme, including plenty of prominent triple harp from Llio Rhydderch and some gorgeous playing from Abdullah Chhadeh on oud and qanun. Natacha Atlas pops up too, on a couple of tracks, using her voice as a mystical instrument on 'Broomfield Hill' and all but stealing the entire album on 'Sofia, The Saracen's Daughter'.

I'm not sure what conclusions we take from it and what, if anything, we can glean from such a rareified outside interpretation of the English tradition. But it 's different, it's admirably peaceful and if it's stress that ails you, run a deep, soapy bath and whack this on. Damn sight cheaper than a shrink.

Colin Irwin (courtesy of fRoots)

Andrew Cronshaw official website

Your Comments

Alston (Cambridge)
Magical! The vocals and instruments are simply divine! Something your dreams merge into...

Ian England
I'm in pain with a bad back therefore not at work while listening to this my pain totally dissapeared MAGIC!

ghassan alyousif
iam an oud solist its nice iwont to know if i wont to enrol my music wat to do www.gassan-alyousif.com

D Strumsky La Jolla, California
I like it quite a lot, in part because it's not what it appears to be. Not that it's deceptive... Just easy to listen to superficially, & perhaps dismiss. But closer, deeper listening reveals strange acoustic blends that sound so right. Apt & inspired. Like the "Aha!" that comes when realising all paths (musical, spiritual, etc.) have the same purpose, if not destination. This is what I think is intended. You get to listen with new ears. How rare is that...?

Wiggy Houston TX
What a surprise...rather brilliant nice mix of sound