Karine Polwart with Steven Polwart & Inge Thomson – Laws of Motion
Hudson Records – 19 October 2018
Although her music has often held an air of mystery, there are no secrets on Karine Polwart’s new studio album, Laws of Motion (released on 19th October via Hudson Records). Her motives and inspirations are as clear as her voice; and Karine Polwart has one of the clearest, most compelling, most eloquent voices out there.
To start the album, Ophelia is perhaps the least transparent song on the album. Karine’s expressive voice and elegant poetry blend with the rich warmth of Steven Polwart‘s guitar and Inge Thomson‘s gentle vocal lull, at an almost sleepy pace. It is an unhurried song that exudes heat, but is never torrid, making Ophelia the perfect opening.
Laws of Motion sees the trio return to the studio for the first time since Traces in 2012 (See interview feature here). That album won Karine Polwart wide critical acclaim and nominations in the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards and the Scottish Album of the Year Award. Since then her creative output has included theatre, in the award-winning Wind Resistance, it’s accompanying studio album, A Pocket of Wind Resistance (reviewed here), and her debut as a published author with the award winning published script. There have also been compelling collaborations such as Songs of Separation (reviewed here); and In August this year Karine joined brother Steven, Inge and Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbott for Scottish Songbook, a nostalgic celebration of the diversity of Scottish popular music, as part of the Light on the Shore program at the Edinburgh Festival. Just one of the many fascinating curatory projects she’s embraced.
Given Karine’s constant movement and exploration, Laws of Motion seems an apt title for her return to the studio, but that title refers more specifically to the album’s content, rather than its creator. Although there was no plan for an album with a single definable theme, Karine’s song writing inspiration ultimately comes from human transience, its sources, and its effects. This is probably most vividly illustrated by two song choices that were originally collaborations with Lau’s Martin Green, for his fascinating exploration of human migration, FLIT. The title track, Laws of Motion starts from a distance, with a hint of latent power in the restrained vocal before drums, electric guitar and keyboards thrust the big question to the fore – “who doesn’t want another chance”? Suitcase is softer, especially the opening voice and accordion, and sees Karine in a role that has always suited her perfectly, the story teller. The story here is of the thousands of children, mainly Jewish, who were safely moved from Nazi Europe shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. Cassiopeia tells a story from her own childhood, and sees Karine revisit the government’s Protect and Survive advice of the 1980s, through soft starlit nights, shattered by martial drums and disquieting keyboards.
Some journeys are more individual. Karine’s grandfather was the inspiration for Young Man On A Mountain. The song skips, lyrically, between his life as a forester in the Trossachs and his WW2 experiences in the Italian Apennine Mountains, and musically between a fast-paced chase and the gentle dance of the chorus. To and fro, back and forth over time. Stories not told, words not said, pain not released. Karine’s sleeve notes (detailed and compelling, as ever) tell us of his reticence on those experiences. The more melancholy Matsuo’s Welcome to Muckhart is quiet and dream-like, an utterly entrancing story about one of Scotland’s hidden gems, a Japanese Garden on the edge of the Ochil Hills. It’s here that Karine’s powers as a story teller are at their strongest – “…a quaking in the underbelly / tore those streets apart / and wrenched my daughter’s hand from me / and razed my heart to raining ash ..”. not only in the song, in those fascinating sleeve notes too. Sparse on the surface, with quiet guitar and vocal providing the only melody, The Robin adopts a similar quiet melancholy. There’s so much more to this song, though – a twinkle of glockenspiel to echo the guitar, sumptuous layers of vocal, warm bass and much more. There’s also the hint of a story, the story of how the robin got his red breast. That story will be explored further in a soon to be released children’s book, A Wee Bird Was Watching, with Karine’s words and Kate Leiper‘s illustrations (details here). The bird theme continues, but in an entirely different vein, for Sydney Carter‘s anti-war song, Crow On The Cradle, with a guitar duet and a resounding chant for the dramatic closing section.
Laws of Motion isn’t only about change, it’s also about permanence. Cornerstone pays three visits, centuries apart, to the Isle of May in the Firth of Forth. A beautifully gentle song with light guitar and vocal over the merest hint of percussion and a quiet drone of accordion. All these themes – storytelling, permanence and movement coalesce in a song that’s sure to attract the most attention. I Burn But I Am Not Consumed opens with a story, moves on to a journey, and closes with a prophecy. The ancient rock beneath the Isle of Lewis is some of the oldest stone on the planet, rock to which humanity itself is the blink of an eye. Karine casts the gaze of this ancient rock on Donald Trump. She opens by telling us the story of his mother’s emigration from Lewis to the USA; spoken word becomes declaimed poetry with snatches of song. She herself has described I Burn But I Am Not Consumed as ‘a lament to a lost boy’ – consigning Donald Trump to history.
Laws of Motion has an instant effect on the first hearing. The familiar, carefully crafted structure of Karine Polwart’s work still does as much to hold the listener’s attention as her award winning 2005 debut, Faultlines, did – as has every album since. The past few years have seen Karine turn her talents to numerous projects, in varied disciplines, and with resounding success. Songs have power, and Karine Polwart has a gift for harnessing that power. Her 2018 return to the studio to record Laws of Motion is a perfect reminder of her talent as a performing singer song writer and a worthy addition to her work; an exceptional album, from an exceptional performer.
https://soundcloud.com/hudsonrecords/karine-polwart-laws-of-motion-radio-edit
UK Tour Dates
17 October LONDON Cadogan Hall
18 October PORTSMOUTH Wedgewood Rooms
19 October PONTARDAWE Arts Centre
20 October MANCHESTER Royal Northern College Of Music
21 October EXETER Phoenix
22 October BRIGHTON Komedia
23 October CAMBRIDGE Junction
24 October LEEDS City Varieties
31 October SHREWSBURY Walker Theatre
01 November BRISTOL St Georges
02 November BIRMINGHAM Town Hall
03 November KENDALL Brewery Arts Centre
04 November GATESHEAD Sage
Pre Order Laws of Motion – Signed CD | CD | LP:
https://karinepolwart.lnk.to/lawsofmotion
https://www.karinepolwart.com/
Photo Credit: Sandy Butler