The Unthanks – Lines
Rabble Rouser Music – 22 February 2019
The Unthanks’ latest venture, Lines, is a trilogy of three discrete song cycles inspired by poetry, the principal link between them being their focusing on female perspectives across time – those of Hull fishing worker Lillian Bilocca (also one of the subjects of Reg Meuross’s new album 12 Silk Handkerchiefs), World War One female poets and writer Emily Brontë respectively. It conveniently brings together under one roof three ostensibly quite different commissioned projects from the past five years with which The Unthanks have been involved, each project commemorating or connected with a specific event.
Each of the individual song cycles can be seen as a further demonstration of the persuasive interpretive skills of Rachel and Becky themselves as well as the intense togetherness of The Unthanks as a performing unit, but also, importantly, as a vehicle for the compositional skills of The Unthanks’ producer, keyboard player and guiding creative force Adrian McNally. In parallel with their fruitful, ingenious and adventurous re-imaginings of the folk music of their native north-east The Unthanks have also been exploring the art of song interpretation in a wider sphere, often away from folk music in its strictest sense and into the arguably more esoteric realm of contemporary classical and art-music. Already, in their four-part Diversions series, they’ve given us revelatory reassessments of the songs of Antony & The Johnsons and Robert Wyatt, collaborated with a brass band, staged the themed sequence of Songs From The Shipyards and breathed new life into the poetry and songs of Molly Drake, following which the assemblage of three separate poetry-related commissions into the Lines trilogy can be seen as a logical next step.
Part One – Lillian Bilocca – is the most recent of the commissions, dating from autumn 2017 when its songs were performed by The Unthanks in The Last Testament Of Lillian Bilocca, the acclaimed site-specific theatre event given as part of Hull’s City Of Culture programme. The texts of the cycle’s two key songs were written by actor and writer Maxine Peake about the Hull Triple Trawler Disaster of 1968 in which 58 men lost their lives; her words were set to music by Adrian McNally. The sequence is framed by a very short instrumental prelude and lengthier postlude, the latter forming a thematic development of the initial progression that eerily reflects on the intervening texts. The songs prove superbly effective in portraying the very character of Lillian herself; A Whistling Woman depicts the thrusting, driven intensity of her grit and determination depicted through insistent motoric rhythms and chanted antiphonal voices. The Sea Is A Woman is the cycle’s emotional core, a masterly and telling dramatic monologue that finds Lillian in a state of barely controlled anger at being unjustly vilified for her actions. The third song, Lonesome Cowboy, also resonates deep, being a delicately heartfelt cover of a composition by Claude Bolling and Jack Fishman; its mood of drifting desolation serves to mirror Lillian’s decline in parallel with that of the fishing industry she fought so hard to save by campaigning for improved safety at sea for its fishermen.
The sequence forming Part Two – World War One – was written and originally performed in 2014 (the opening year of the War’s centenary), for A Time And A Place, a live audio-visual work commissioned by Sounds UK with assistance from the Arts Council of England. The texts used are predominantly those of poems and letters from the time of the War. The cycle begins, though, with Roland And Vera, an extended, episodic piece in A-B-A form, that features Sam Lee, who spent time researching personal stories from rural communities in the south-west of England. Sam takes the vocal lead for the first section of this reminiscence, which is structured much like a traditional folksong, singing to a drifting chamber-folk (piano, strings and gentle brushed percussion) backdrop, before giving way to Becky Unthank for the central section, which carries a bittersweet resonance in a melody that at first uncannily resembles part of Somewhere Over The Rainbow; the two singers then join forces on the final section, which reverts to the folksong melody and structure. The next song, Everyone Sang, though (puzzlingly) solely credited to Tim Dalling, is actually Tim’s setting of Siegfried Sassoon’s poem of that name; a slightly delirious swooning expression of togetherness tumbling aloft on a sea of voices. Centrepiece of Part Two is Rachel’s impeccably characterised voicing of Teresa Hooley’s harrowing War Film, a poem of deep universal resonance offering a lesser-heard but intensely valid female voice from the time that speaks against war with such humanity that it could apply to any side of a conflict and to any era. Adrian’s disquietingly folksong-like setting of this poem is truly masterly. Wilfrid Wilson Gibson’s 1917 poem Breakfast comes next in the sequence, departing momentarily from the female perspective and sung by Adrian (I think); it’s capped by a reminiscence of the soldier song Hanging On The Old Barbed Wire. Another Sassoon setting, the starkly beautiful Suicide In The Trenches, follows, and the final poem Socks by Jessie Pope is sung by both sisters in close harmony to a solo piano. Interestingly, the piano parts for this particular song cycle were recorded on the very instrument on which Holst wrote The Planets between 1914 and 1916 (and I wonder, am I being fanciful if I remark that the succession of bare chords accompanying Socks puts me in mind of the ominous tread of Saturn from that suite?). The whole of Part Two is impressive, but the final four settings seem to possess a special, poignant unity, perhaps at least partly due to the common factor of Adrian’s composing style.
Part Three of the trilogy is the most intimate segment of the trilogy. It consists of a collection of ten poems by Emily Brontë which have been turned into song by Adrian McNally. Commissioned by the Brontë Society to mark Emily’s 200th birthday, Adrian composed these settings on Emily’s original piano (a rare example of a 5-octave cabinet piano probably made in London between 1810 and 1815), in The Parsonage at Haworth where she grew up. Since the Brontë Parsonage is now a working museum, the recording as well as the writing all had to take place after nightfall, and the intimate ambience of this quiet and atmospheric time is entirely apt for the intimate nature of Emily’s poetry, which in the main reveals and explores the poet’s oneness with, and responses to, nature, albeit with an unexpectedly acute perception of mortality for someone of her tender years (it is believed Deep Deep Down In The Silent Grave was written before her first collection was published). This Brontë song cycle is where the trilogy comes closest to the classical model (in approximating the concept of a Liederkreis, and in being performed by just Rachel and Becky with only Adrian’s piano for accompaniment).
Although Emily’s poetry has been overshadowed by the towering tormented passions of Wuthering Heights, her only novel, it has nevertheless more recently been reassessed in the light of its simplicity of expression and ability to convey concisely a spectrum of emotion. This song cycle gives the feeling of a journey through moods and emotions as reflected in the landscape – not exactly a Winterreise, but you get the drift. It opens with the breezy, softly animated High Waving Heather, which employs a minimalist repeated note pattern that mirrors Rachel and Becky’s parallel harmonies – although the stormier element of the climate may be a touch underplayed in this setting. She Dried Her Tears And They Did Smile shyly combines elegance with a shy diffidence. The unique ambience for the arpeggio-driven The Night Is Darkening Round Me is conjured by a clock chiming midnight. The longest of the settings (clocking in at seven minutes) is that of Lines (The soft unclouded blue of air), where Emily attempts to convey something of the character of her disgraced brother Branwell.
The most powerful poem in the sequence, though, is Remembrance, whose lament for lost love is set to a brisk funeral march rhythm. The sounds of cawing crows and the tread of heavy footsteps enable the mood of mourning to continue on to the plangent O Evening Why, and this pair of settings contains some of the finest performances of the sequence from Rachel and Becky, unerringly steered and underpinned by Adrian’s authoritative piano work. Against these, I’m Happiest When Most Away feels almost devil-may-care in its emotional response. There’s one more Brontë setting to consider, What Use Is It To Slumber Here?, which is available (only as a digital download) only to purchasers of the full trilogy direct from the Unthanks’ website. This would, I suggest, work best paired with O Evening Why in the sequence, for its questing mood is close.
In summary, the sisters’ gently expressive performing style allows for discreet nuances in phrasing that reveal a deeper undercurrent in the writing and the sense of commitment and vision of the whole team ensures that the Unthanks standard remains high.
One final point concerning the presentation of the trilogy. It’s available in a choice of formats, as ‘medium play’ records on 10″ vinyl, CD and download; the records can be bought separately or together in an “unshouty” and admirably sturdy slipcase, within which each of the three separate discs enjoys its own foldout digipack. It’s a shame that the actual texts of the poems aren’t reproduced within but this slipcase presentation is still not without merit, and a very attractive package.
Available to order now via http://www.the-unthanks.com/lines/
Spring Tour: Unaccompanied, As We Are
Joined on this tour by Unthanks member Niopha Keegan to make a vocal trio. They fully explore their vocal combinations, with brand new material and arrangements, alongside more familiar Unthanks material.
APRIL
20 Alphabetti Theatre Newcastle upon Tyne
23 Pocklington Arts Centre nr York
24 Square Chapel, Halifax
25 St Paul’s Church, Birmingham
26 Tivoli Theatre, Wimborne Minster
27 St. George’s Church, Brighton
28 Folkestone Quarterhouse, Folkestone
29 Epsom Playhouse, Epsom
30 Tramshed, Cardiff
MAY
1 St George’s, Bristol
2 Union Chapel, London
8 Epstein Theatre, Liverpool
9 The Platform, Morecambe
10 Paisley Arts Centre, Paisley
11 Pleasance Theatre, Edinburgh
14 The Assembly, Royal Leamington Spa
15 Open, Norwich
16 The Stables, Milton Keynes
17 Palace Theatre, Newark
18 The Trades Club, Hebden Bridge
19 Victoria Hall, Settle
23 Left Bank, Leeds
24 Ushaw College, Durham
26 Gosforth Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne
29 Spirit Store, Dundalk, Ireland
30 Stephen’s Church, Dublin, Ireland
31 The Duncairn Centre For Culture And Arts, Belfast, Northern Ireland
JUNE
01 Seamus Heaney Homeplace, Bellaghy, Northern Ireland
More details and ticket links here http://www.the-unthanks.com/