Hairetis Harper – Draft
Same Difference Music – Out Now
As much as I don’t wish to be that person, I find that I am getting quicker to dismiss albums than I used to. Intolerance of a cluttered world? Not enough time to listen to all the music? Getting to the end of a track is good; getting to the end of the album ensures I will listen again. I know that I should not be this dismissive when I think of all the music I have enjoyed that I had to listen to time and again before I got it. At the other end of the spectrum are those albums that I know I am going to engage with from the first track, from the first break or even as they start. When these occasions occur, I know that the relationship is going to blossom and be long lasting.
So, with that introduction, it will not be a surprise to learn that Draft by Hairetis Harper – duo Yiagos Hairetis and Maria-Christina Harper – has been given a permanent place on my personal playlist from first hearing. The opening track to Draft, Intro, slowly and gently pulls you in, a hand holding yours as you have no option but to be lead on a journey, a journey with an undercurrent of power that is benign yet forceful. The sounds come from the lute of Yiagos and the harp of Maria Christina, both masters of their instruments, bringing their backgrounds, their styles, their aspirations together to explore the soundscape borne out of the Cretan lute tradition and experimental harp.
The result is instantly captivating. That first track is much more than two instruments, and the ability to provide depth, strength and delicacy at the same time is a rare but welcomed encounter. Here I am reminded – and only reminded – of the Paris Texas soundtrack by Ry Cooder, the duo producing a wide-open vista not so much Tex-Mex more Tech-Med but you get the point.
The lute is such an evocative instrument, and one that has so many colours. One minute a minstrel piece from the 13th century, then a sumptuous sound from the Baroque, then a clear, crisp variation on twentieth century classical guitar. It is an instrument I have long enjoyed listening to and Yiagos adds yet another hue: elemental, a direct line back to its roots and at the same time a giant leap forward when played using fx.
The harp on the other hand is an instrument that probably does not get the good press that the lute does. In the folk world I came to it through the Breton harp of Alan Stivell, all those decades ago and then they seemed to drop off the radar. However over the past few years they have been staging a comeback in the acoustic world, including Catriona McKay, Brídín, and Iona Zajac from Avocet. Add the manipulations, courtesy of electronics, and you have a very versatile instrument which, at times you wonder if it is a harp, as in Bells. Such are these manipulations and samples that Maria Christina pulls out of her instrument that Yiagos’s gravelly voice breaks the spell that you hadn’t realised you had been in. Rhythms change. A slight menace, a disorientation; the harp rises up the scale and the lute goes into meltdown…then fade, then return to stability.
Draft then is a gallery of pictures created by the fusion of these two instruments, two sets of ideas, two people. The fusion shifts its balance from track to track and even within tracks. Lost in the City has a nice bluesy start, the lute and the harp swapping notes, conversing in fluid lines whilst wandering the streets, all the time the foot-tapping to the regular beat of the pavement. This is lost as in absorbed; no threat, no misplacement, no disappearance, just enjoying the space, the rhythm, the moment.
But as you explore this gallery, the placing of the pictures has clearly been a matter of some consideration. The mood shifts, initially unbeknown but now you think, yes, but I wonder where, I wonder when? Lute Interlude pricks the reverie: wah-wah pedal on a lute? (I am that old to still be amazed by such things.) This is not quite heavy metal but wow, what a surprise. And now, here is a vibe of free form playing, using the whole sound palette, with fuzzy buzzy drones underneath and riffs caught and built on until they fly, racing to catch each other.
A more gentler picture comes with Meadow. The sounds of birds, of insects, and of a blossoming harp. Maria Christina gets to expand, to play around, to riff on bucolic thoughts and feelings. The cicadas provide the warmth of the night, and they follow us on to Speedy, a driven tune, packed with traces of Spain, North Africa, Greece; the Mediterranean is washing around us.
I have been round this gallery and I want to go again. I know I have missed things: subtleties, hints, conversations. And I shall return, many times. For the listener and for the musicians, this is exploring, extemporising, excellent.
Order Draft via Bandcamp: https://hairetis-harper.bandcamp.com/
and: https://orcd.co/hairetis-harper_draft
Photo Credit: Alexandros Adam