Rowan : Morrison – Fields of Frost
MillerSounds – Out Now
No, it’s not too late in the season to be reviewing this determinedly winter-themed collection by the Stephen Stannard-Angeline Morrison teaming that goes under the collective name of Rowan : Morrison. The pair have worked together on a more or less permanent basis since 2014, when (then going under the name of Angeline Morrison and The Rowan Amber Mill) they released a mesmerising winter-themed 20-minute EP Silent Night Songs For A Cold Winter’s Evening. For the limited-run Double-Deluxe Edition of the duo’s new 12-track album Fields Of Frost, the six tracks comprising that long-out-of-print and much-sought-after EP have been appended as a significant and highly desirable bonus. (Collector’s Note: the package includes four art cards, three stickers, two badges, a hand-numbered limited edition certificate and a vinyl-effect CDr, all housed in a sturdy metal tin).
This release usefully bookends the year, for Rowan:Morrison’s nominal debut album In The Sunshine We Rode The Horses (reviewed here) which came out at the very beginning of 2019 and received a good measure of acclaim for its ambitious blend of thought-provoking conceptual commentary and enchanting “woodland folkadelica”.
Fields Of Frost is an artefact of characteristic dark beauty, its bright glistening atmosphere of comfort within joy much in spite of the harsh and bleak ancient seasonal tropes, ever looking both back and forward, cherishing and nurturing the promise of the coming spring and rejuvenation. The title track itself is most appealing in its icily cosy ambience that possesses something of the feel of such projects as Sharron Kraus’s Winter Songs. And yet, the eternal cycles and traditions are most tellingly represented on this album by the stark ritual of the Lyke Wake Dirge, which is given in two versions – instrumentally accompanied and even more eerily a cappella – together forming a binding highlight of the whole sequence. Three further items are also rendered a cappella, directly expressive and quite chilling in effect. Two of these – Coventry Carol and Christmas Is Now Drawing Near At Hand – are also given in alternative (accompanied) versions, the third (Als I Lay On Yoolis Night) only in a cappella mode. Vocal parts are ingeniously layered, while individual parts are cleanly and precisely enunciated and solo lines crisply delineated. The limpid, gleaming instrumental textures, where used, convey a pastel, pastoral air of ancientrye through the use of autoharps, strings, shruti box, ocarina and gurdy; only on the central piece The Witch’s Lament does the rich combined timbre feel cloying. But in all modes, the pervasive sense of life in music is paramount and essential to our survival.
The Silent Night Songs EP begins and ends with gentle, (respectively) vocal and instrumental treatments of that titular item, between which are presented the hazy fireside drift of Cold Winter Morning, a timely wassail song and a joyous take on I Saw Three Ships. Briefly considering the value of the appended bonus EP tracks, they’re best described as being in the spirit of a suitably evocative warmth-in-a-chilly-climate offering that’s genuinely (and naturally retrospectively) complementary to Fields Of Frost sequence. It’s a Christmas gift that’s not just for Christmas, and its mission is Peace On Earth. No argument there, of course.
Available via Bandcamp: https://rowanmorrison.bandcamp.com/