“Tread softly (because) you tread on my dreams.” Another irresistible setting to W.B Yeats’s poetry by Julie Abbé.
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven, one of the most cherished poems in the English language is among four poems by W.B. Yeats deliciously put to music by Julie Abbé in her critically acclaimed debut folk album Numberless Dreams which we reviewed here as one of our Featured Albums of the Month.
Like the sound of the wind in the reeds from which Yeats took inspiration, Abbé’s music is full of shifting natural beauty, whispers and sighs that could be sounds of sorrow or of love. Numberless Dreams is masterful in its delivery and intriguing in its opacity.
Thomas Blake, Folk Radio UK
We already had the pleasure to launch her previous music video last October for “A Poet to his Beloved” filmed at the Gower by filmmaker Kat Macaulay. This time it’s a live recording from Julie’s album launch gig at Bristol Folk House last November, in which she is accompanied by Sid Goldsmith on guitar and Amy Cox on cello.
Many attempts have been made to turn Yeats’s poems into songs, but seldom has the music and interpretation so successfully matched the depth of feelings of Yeats’s poetry. Julie Abbé’s original renditions of the great man’s writing are just instantly irresistible: her warm, deeply moving melodies coupled with a genuine heartfelt sensitivity of interpretation bring the poems to life in an unprecedented way.
Bristol-based folk and jazz singer Julie Abbé grew up in rural France dancing and singing to the traditional Bal Folk music of her native Poitou-Charentes region. In the UK for the past 20 years, she brings a fresh voice and unique arrangements to English and Irish traditional songs. Talking about this poem she describes how the inspiration came to her: “This tune came to me after hearing about the passing of a dear family friend. The next night I was performing the other Yeats’s songs and someone told me about this poem. I looked it up and it fitted exactly to the tune I had written the night before, I just had to remove one word.”
The rest of the album gathers beautifully-crafted traditional songs, a cappella or accompanied, enriched with gorgeous three-part harmonies sang with Sid Goldsmith and Dominie Hooper, two of the finest folk vocalists and musicians of the moment. Free and creative in her arrangements, Julie Abbé doesn’t hesitate to remove or rewrite verses in order to bring new clarity to the story of the songs and add poignancy to their meaning. The result is a compelling collection of finely chosen songs from a rising artist who absolutely deserves to be discovered.
Order a copy of the CD or digital download from www.julieabbe.com
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