Sam Lee & Notes Inégales – Van Diemen’s Land
NMC Recordings – 16 November 2018
Van Diemen’s Land is the CD debut for a recent collaborative venture between Mercury-prize-nominated folk singer/song collector/broadcaster Sam Lee and pioneering, free-thinking composer/conductor/bandleader Peter Wiegold, which magically combines the styles and strengths of both parties in a series of extemporisations on folk songs. But that ain’t what you’d necessarily expect from a fusion thus summarised, not least in that it doesn’t really sound like folk music – at least not in terms of melody, for Sam’s singing encompasses many other influences – of which more below.
The disc’s nine tracks arise out of a series of live performances in 2014 where Sam’s charismatic song interpretations were transported into new territory by the inspired, flexible and freely improvised-feeling responses of the musicians making up Peter’s Notes Inégales ensemble (effectively, the resident band at his Club Inégales in London). Variously, these musicians have considerable individual and collective experience in folk, jazz, classical, electronic, experimental and world music, and have proved an ideal foil for Sam’s special vocal treatments of these time-served traditional folksongs in their responses to the theme of “journeys to the other side”.
The first of the collaborative experiments, Rambling Boys, fittingly starts off the disc, and grows a cyclic groove out of a pizzicato riff and repeated chiming motif, into and above which Sam introduces his rumination as the texture meanders even more urgently with the unfolding of the tale. It’s certainly compelling, but it may take the listener a couple of plays before he/she is able to process the alchemy of what’s going on here. The improvised accompaniment ebbs and flows like the sea on which the protagonist is being tossed, yet transcends literal pictorialism; the mechanism of transportation and its effect on the singer are continued in an even more animated setting on Deep Blue Sea, in which the principal event (Willie being drowned) seems almost casually introduced, almost incidental.
The theme of transportation as punishment is resumed on Botany Bay, the sea itself both seductive and disorientating. After which the voyage-out becomes one of the mind – the psychological burden of banishment is examined in more depth on I Have Travelled In Exile which closes the disc, but before that the album takes more of an inward turn with Suit Of Blue, an edgy expression of defiance and resolution. This forms the first episode of a linked trilogy of songs at the heart of the album, which continues ever more persuasively with the restless Quicker Now Than Any Wind, itself providing the textual link to the intense regret (and queasily exploratory textures) of Laurel Green. The mental crisis and overall sense of delirium is even more pronounced on Flash Company, which (a touch reminiscent of Bellowhead’s reimagining) is given a disturbing twist, with its very real warning voiced in ominous textures and discordant clashes.
Sam has been described within the folk world as a vocalist extraordinaire. He certainly has a highly developed sense of folk tradition, and his own mindset and personal interpretive philosophy ensure that due weight is given to the narrative, while decorative elements and note- or phrase-embellishments are undertaken at the service of, or more directly portray, the reflections of the narrator or protagonist. Laurel Green is probably the best illustration of this technique here, whereby Sam’s expression flows easily between sean-nós, lament and jazz melisma, twisting and bending the source melody in response to the text, while the florid, fluid musical accompaniment acts as an audio counterpart as well as a response for the purely verbal ideas.
The complement of Notes Inégales comprises Peter Wiegold (keyboards), Fraser Fifield (pipes, saxophone), Max Baillie (violin), Joel Bell (guitar), Ben Markland (bass), Simon Limbrick (percussion) and Martin Butler (piano). Even the seasoned music enthusiast may be forgiven for not knowing all the names – but their sense of ensemble is strong and cohesive, and they maintain an intuitive balance due to careful observation of dynamics, even when bringing a dramatic occurrence into sharp relief. The individual colours of electric guitar are especially effectively deployed, and metallic and wooden percussion provide a beguiling shimmering gamelan-like backdrop of Middle Of The Ocean. That chimeric, constantly changing and evolving quality permeates the ensemble’s approach, and the result, in combination with a comparable sense of flexible emotional and musical expression, is what gives this collaboration its own special merit.
Launch event & concert: 13 December 2018; Club Inegales, Euston, London – Tickets here
http://www.clubinegales.com/
Order Van Diemen’s Land here: https://www.nmcrec.co.uk/club-inegales/van-diemens-land