KIZZY CRAWFORD & GWILYM SIMCOCK -
Birdsong /Can yr Adar
Basho Records SRCD 54-2
Kizzy Crawford (vocals & guitar) Gwilym Simcock (piano) with the Sinfonia Cymru Players.
Recorded at Ardingly, West Sussex, England. Date unspecified
.
A cursory glance at the publicity material accompanying this release caused me fear that I was about to be immersed in some worthy but nonetheless preachy new-age propaganda or even worse, a dose of Enya style exotica. There is indeed a serious extra-musical purpose to this collaborative enterprise between Welsh/Barbadian singer, Kizzy Crawford and pianist / composer Simcock but it is delivered in a way that doesn’t compromise the musicality of the composition or its performance. In other words, it isn’t agit-prop with musical backing and you don’t have to be an environmental activist to enjoy it.
What we have is a song cycle for voice, piano and small orchestra (a string quartet with flute and French horn) in four movements corresponding with the seasons and containing two songs apiece, prefaced with an introductory chorale for strings and piano which emerges from a dawn chorus of pre-recorded bird song, setting the scene in celebration of Carngafallt, a Welsh rainforest, its avian lifeforms and the preservation of the natural environment. The songs, which appear to be attributed to Crawford, are delivered bi-lingually and sung in pleasant pop-folk tone rather than classical or jazz-diva style intonation and are set against a soundscape of instrumental music that draws on the tradition of British string music recalling the writing of Britten, Tippett and Vaughan Williams, judiciously applied and re-interpreted as to avoid any accusation of pastiche. Simcock clearly knows his way around the repertoire and his musical intelligence is evident throughout the score in the effects achieved, both startling and sublime. Woven into the musical tapestry are obligatti by other individual instrumental voices and in his piano solos Simcock employs that flowing, rhapsodic style that works so well in the Metheny group’s pastoral realisations and which we know from his work as an `Impossible Gentleman`.
Of the individual pieces which are lyrically strophic but set in largely through composed scores, allow the widest opportunity for thematic development of which there are many beautiful moments. `Into the Dark Mystical Beauty/Mewn ir Harddwch Tywyll Cyfriniol` is a particularly powerful piece in terms of the emotional impact it engenders and there are a number of joyful jig like songs to lighten the atmosphere, one of which , `Owl Song/Can y Gwdihw`, brings the cycle to a close exhorting us in the words of Albert Einstein – which are incorporated into Kizzy’s thoughtful lyrics and laid out in the accompanying booklet – to “Look deep into nature” an activity that has always been encouraged by listening to beautiful music of the type brought to us in this delightful and thought provoking work.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Birdsong /Can yr Adar
Basho Records SRCD 54-2
Kizzy Crawford (vocals & guitar) Gwilym Simcock (piano) with the Sinfonia Cymru Players.
Recorded at Ardingly, West Sussex, England. Date unspecified
.
A cursory glance at the publicity material accompanying this release caused me fear that I was about to be immersed in some worthy but nonetheless preachy new-age propaganda or even worse, a dose of Enya style exotica. There is indeed a serious extra-musical purpose to this collaborative enterprise between Welsh/Barbadian singer, Kizzy Crawford and pianist / composer Simcock but it is delivered in a way that doesn’t compromise the musicality of the composition or its performance. In other words, it isn’t agit-prop with musical backing and you don’t have to be an environmental activist to enjoy it.
What we have is a song cycle for voice, piano and small orchestra (a string quartet with flute and French horn) in four movements corresponding with the seasons and containing two songs apiece, prefaced with an introductory chorale for strings and piano which emerges from a dawn chorus of pre-recorded bird song, setting the scene in celebration of Carngafallt, a Welsh rainforest, its avian lifeforms and the preservation of the natural environment. The songs, which appear to be attributed to Crawford, are delivered bi-lingually and sung in pleasant pop-folk tone rather than classical or jazz-diva style intonation and are set against a soundscape of instrumental music that draws on the tradition of British string music recalling the writing of Britten, Tippett and Vaughan Williams, judiciously applied and re-interpreted as to avoid any accusation of pastiche. Simcock clearly knows his way around the repertoire and his musical intelligence is evident throughout the score in the effects achieved, both startling and sublime. Woven into the musical tapestry are obligatti by other individual instrumental voices and in his piano solos Simcock employs that flowing, rhapsodic style that works so well in the Metheny group’s pastoral realisations and which we know from his work as an `Impossible Gentleman`.
Of the individual pieces which are lyrically strophic but set in largely through composed scores, allow the widest opportunity for thematic development of which there are many beautiful moments. `Into the Dark Mystical Beauty/Mewn ir Harddwch Tywyll Cyfriniol` is a particularly powerful piece in terms of the emotional impact it engenders and there are a number of joyful jig like songs to lighten the atmosphere, one of which , `Owl Song/Can y Gwdihw`, brings the cycle to a close exhorting us in the words of Albert Einstein – which are incorporated into Kizzy’s thoughtful lyrics and laid out in the accompanying booklet – to “Look deep into nature” an activity that has always been encouraged by listening to beautiful music of the type brought to us in this delightful and thought provoking work.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
