iyatraQuartet – Break the Dawn
Self Released – 24 April 2020
It is reasonably safe to assume that over the last few weeks, most people have become better acquainted with their living rooms than they ever thought possible. In that short time, the world has become both smaller and larger. Where previously we have taken for granted our right and ability to travel all over the world with relative ease, we now have to give serious thought to the implications of walking to the shops or exercising the dog. Technologically speaking, we have never been better equipped to deal with isolation, but as individuals and societies, this is still new and often scary ground. It has often been said that music can bring people together. Now we are finding out that the cliche is true.
Although the current global health crisis has caused iyartaQuartet to postpone the live launch of Break The Dawn, their second album, they are, like many other bands, pushing ahead with the release. And like many other bands, they have been forced to adapt. In their case, this will take the form of a ‘live listen-along’ on Youtube on the album’s release date. The gesture, and the way it has been phrased, seems generous, inclusive and democratic. The group seem to cultivate a sense of togetherness, not just with each other, but with their listeners.
And this is important. iyatraQuartet take their name from a Hindi word meaning travel or pilgrimage, and state in the liner notes for Breaking The Dawn that their aim is to ‘take you on an imaginative, exciting and evocative journey.’ Now, there was no way of foretelling the current predicament when those notes were first drafted, but they have undoubtedly gained poignance in the intervening weeks, all the more so because of the sort of music the quartet play. Theirs is a thrillingly cosmopolitan, well-travelled brand of roots music, with influences ranging from the Carnatic tradition of southern India to western pop music, via Cuban dance rhythms and various other folk traditions from England to the Middle East. It is all tied together by brilliant musicianship and founded on a solid neo-classical bedrock.
As far as the quartet are concerned, traditions are there to be built on, played with and jumbled together into new forms. Break The Dawn’s opening track Black Seas takes its cue from Black Is The Colour (a song that has already travelled from Scotland to the Appalachian mountains and back and has been interpreted by everyone from Luciano Berio to Joan Baez) and adds a raga-like drone intro and a throbbing bodhran (courtesy of percussionist Will Roberts) to a thrillingly abrasive scrape of strings and George Sleightholme’s clarinet before the whole thing picks up pace and resolves in a pulsating finale. The folk songs settings of experimental composer Berio are a reference point, but the music here is more self-contained and has a distinct narrative arc – like a pop song – in spite of the lack of vocals.
Dompe has its roots in 1530, but its plucked strings and kalimba give it a timeless, dreamlike quality. It is a perfect fusion of cultures – African kalimba and Andean charango (taking the place of the lute) giving an English renaissance tune a new lease of life. Towards the end, a wordless ensemble chant changes the very feel of the song: what begins in courtly precision ends in wild abandon. The charango (played by Rich Phillips, who usually plays the cello) makes another appearance on Chandra. Alice Barron’s violin and Sleightholme’s clarinet take centre stage, and although the former is carefree while the latter is almost minimally precise, they sit together perfectly.
On the Arabic love song Lama Bada, Phillips’ detuned cello and Roberts’ frame drum echo each other in a close but watchful dance, while Barron’s graceful violin soars over them and the clarinet chatters winsomely. One Step, Two, meanwhile, is a beautiful miniature, uncannily evocative of unknown lands. It creates its own kind of musical language thanks to the combined strangeness of a toy mbira, a gloved djembe and a bowl of dry rice, while Phillips’ cello solo is startling in its originality.
Perhaps the most atmospheric – and also the most ambitious – track on the album is Bhairav (Break The Dawn), which features Barron scordatura violin while singing bowls provide a drone that could be sinister or transformative depending on your state of mind. Roberts’ insistent drumming dips in and out, helping to create a soundscape that is never still. Just when you think you have a handle on the sound, something new will emerge, or there will be a surprising change of tempo, and you will be floored all over again.
On the adaptation of Maria, an anonymous plainchant, the percussive elements – tabla and bodhran – seem to come at you from every unexpected angle while the strings and woodwind have a restrained but improvisational quality. The percussion is again notable on Caravan – this time the arrangement is more complex, making use of cowbell and floor toms while the bass clarinet trots steadfastly around before joining the cello and violin in a slow and sombre middle section. The instruments then disperse and reappear in entirely new guises for the song’s bracing final minute.
Alpine Flowers has the most beguiling and bittersweet of backstories – it was inspired by a memorial plaque for a woman who died rescuing two lame girls from a burning building. The eerie chanting of the words on the plaque becomes more prominent as the song progresses, eventually eclipsing the music and concluding with a dark mesh of voice. It is another surprising but wholly effective left turn from a band who seem intent on ripping up the rule book. The closing track, Fives, is no less extraordinary, a piece of cumulative virtuosity that showcases the talents of every member without ever losing sight of the musical connection they share.
And in the end, this exquisite album is all about connections, explicitly the connections between cultures and places that allow music like this to be created. But also – and this is more important right now – connections between individuals: between the musicians in the group, and out to the listeners. iyatraQuartet’s music is a timely reminder of that all-important link between people and their art, and Break The Dawn exists as a complex, stunningly-performed artefact that offers a little hope in dark times.
Break the Dawn is released on 24 April 2020
Pre-order: Digital | CD | Vinyl
Join their live launch on Youtube – 24th April at 7 pm here.
https://www.iyatraquartet.com/
Photo Credit: Gerard Collett