At first glance, this may appear to be just another teaming of two knowingly talented young folksters (these fortuitous pairings seem to be two a penny these days, almost everywhere you look!). But let’s not hastily prejudge… Sure, the famous Newcastle folk degree course was where Alex Cumming and Nicola Beazley met, six years ago, but it turns out they’ve both been playing music since the early age of six or seven: Somerset-born Alex the piano accordion and Rochdale-born Nicola the fiddle. Even outside their student days, Alex and Nicola have both figured large in ceilidh bands, for instance. But it was during their uni studies, they discovered a common interest in the performance of traditional music, began to work out songs and tunes together and busked in the town centre, subsequently self-releasing an ostensibly tentative yet by all accounts very accomplished EP. In 2014 Alex and Nicola attained finalist status in the New Roots Awards, following which they headed out on tour supporting prestigious artists such as Nancy Kerr and Lau. Alex then formed the quartet The Teacups. Despite Nicola being based in Manchester and Alex in Medford, Massachusetts, they have continued to tour together in preparation for the release this month of their aptly titled debut full-length duo album Across The Water, which both embodies and reflects all manner of transatlantic (and life) connotations.
All that additional experience has certainly been of considerable benefit, for there’s a really solid sense of purpose about this record, not only in Alex and Nicola’s actual playing but in the sense of sheer togetherness they exhibit as musical partners, and in their choice of selective embellishment courtesy of four guest musicians – Naomi Rowland (cello), Matt Downer on double bass ((Jamie Smith’s Mabon, Jim Moray), Evan Carson on bodhrán (Sam Kelly, The Willows) and the album’s insightful producer Pete Ord (guitar, percussion). Their contributions both supplement and creatively underpin the musical argument while imparting the whole sequence with a real sense of propulsion and onward momentum, for all that the latter audibly also stems from Alex and Nicola themselves and their attitude to their chosen material. One can be mindful that albums centring around just two performers can potentially feel either rarefied and/or undernourished in terms of timbre or variety of sound – but here the blend of fiddle and accordion remains both rich and full and vigorous even without the enhancements.
Across The Water is persuasively sequenced too, interspersing songs (six) with instrumental tracks (four) and giving all due contrasts in pace and tempo. The alluring combination of bustling vitality and solidity in the duo’s sound and approach is apparent from the outset on a refreshingly spirited take on Bonny Ship The Diamond, where robust and inventive touches of bass and percussion add just the right amount of weight to Alex’s forthright singing with its natural and unforced sense of drama. Similar qualities are brought to bear on the cross-traditional ballad of Billy Taylor, but arguably the finest moments among the disc’s songs come with a lyrical and beautifully measured account of Bold Fisherman (with Nicola providing some lovely vocal harmonies) and the brooding Australian narrative Streets Of Forbes (one of a pair of Antipodean songs that Alex learnt from James Fagan). The duo’s unity of approach – and the spirit of togetherness in their music-making – is exemplified on the disc’s hail-well-met come-all-ye closer, Come Me Lads (aka Let Union Be); having said which, this track might equally well have served as a disc opener. My initial spotlighting of the strength of the vocal tracks should not be taken to imply that the instrumental tracks are any less invigorating; Nicola’s Playford-fixated Breakfast Set is particularly impressive, and the English polka Enrico (apparently “Thomas Hardy’s favourite fiddle tune”, and collected by his father) receives a jauntily animated performance here.
All in all, Across The Water represents a well-appointed, sensibly-planned and intelligently configured (and brilliantly recorded) set that proves more than a mere “stall-setter with prospects for a brighter future” exercise; those prospects are already beginning to be realised, and the duo’s positive drive and clear, confident and distinctive sense of musical identity are both introduced and confirmed here – which is not an easy feat for a debut album.
Across the Water is released via Haystack Records
More here: http://alexandnicolamusic.weebly.com