Listen to ‘Chapter Two’ from UNTOLD, the debut album from new duo The Ciderhouse Rebellion: fiddle player Adam Summerhayes and master accordionist Murray Grainger. The album, which is released today, is a unique three-track 50-minute improvisation recorded live in a single take. As you can hear below, the improvisational flow of their music has an almost cinematic feel, carried aloft by an air of emotion that registers on a deeper level with the listener immediately. It’s quite unlike anything else in the field and I applaud them both. It’s a stunningly beautiful creation, do yourself a favour, buy it and escape for 50-minutes.
The pair produce music that is uniquely magical in its improvisatory focus. UNTOLD takes this a step further: “Nothing seems more natural than just picking up my fiddle and playing… it is music born of the folk traditions that I loved since I was a child, but as each idea manifests itself, it becomes something new that it would not have been at any other moment and never will be again: instant evolution”, explains Adam.
Last Summer they were in the studio and had just finished recording an album of traditional tunes (particularly from the North East) and some of their own compositions. Instead of turning off the microphones they decided to attempt something they’d often spoken about doing… they pressed record, with no plan at all, and just played. 31 minutes later they simply stopped, as naturally as they had started, and listened back to ‘Chapter One’ – “…. there’s all of my life in there”, said Murray quietly. “Perhaps mine too”, echoed Adam. “Hopes, fears, memories, love, joy…..”
They picked up their instruments afresh and hit ‘record’ again. This is Chapter Two: an unexpected musical journey which starts on a note which unintentionally but with a certain questioning urgency is repeated by the fiddle along the way. The whole piece evolved in an unusual music mode where flat and sharp sevenths appear and disappear, and the conversation between the two instruments is unpredictable yet seamless. “We just played, phrases appeared, shifts of key and metre, dynamic shape, countermelodies. Everything I would be proud to have composed and yet it happened in real-time with not one word exchanged”, says Murray. “This album truly contains my soul, a subconscious expression of my life and experience.”
https://soundcloud.com/fromthewhitehouse/the-ciderhouse-rebellion-untold-chapter-two/s-oF0ra
The third piece on the album is a two-minute conclusion to the story: ‘Epilogue.’
UNTOLD is released on 7 February 2020
More here: www.theciderhouserebellion.com