Toby Hay & David Ian Roberts – Harp & Guitar Improvisations
Cambrian Records – 1 October 2021
Wales-based record label Cambrian Records is now in its 7th Year; in that time, with Toby Hay the driving force behind the label, they have taken on us quite a beautiful journey. We have had unique offerings from Toby and Jim Ghedi, David Ian Roberts, Sky Barkers, Rusalnaia (Sharron Kraus & Gillian Chadwick), Duski and Gavin Prior.
The latest offering is an improvised two-part session from Toby Hay and David Ian Roberts recorded just weeks before the first lockdown in 2020. The year before, Toby and David released a three-part improvisation titled Capel Y Graig, although this latest release is entirely different. While Capel Y Graig found them improvising on guitar (6 and 12 string) with Toby also adding piano, on Harp & Guitar Improvisations, Toby doesn’t touch his guitar at all and instead focuses all his energy on the harp.
The results of this “evening of whiskey & improvising” at Toby’s mid-Wales home are quite beautiful. This would be the last time they played music with a friend before the pandemic began.
The two improvised tracks which made it onto this recording are not overly long, but their interplay is so mesmerising any notion of time is suspended. The first, Part 1, is just under 7 minutes. It opens to sparkling circular notes on the harp, soon joined by David’s guitar, blending and intertwining like a musical murmuration before settling to begin a second movement. David’s guitar strumming lays a canvas for the harp melody that follows; again, there is a brightness and joy to their playing with them occasionally entwining in unison, allowing each to explore before reuniting again. At just under four minutes in, they enter a third movement in which they take proceedings down to an almost meditative pace. The interplay of picked notes here is gentle and spacious; you forget which instrument is being played and surrender to the moment.
Part 2 is no less spellbinding, with the notes being allowed to stretch, so the interplay of harp and guitar has more of a contemplative feel. After a minute in, they begin to explore a short circling melody, the harp accentuating the guitar’s notes, at times almost resembling the kora. Despite maintaining the contemplative mood of the session throughout, it never feels melancholic, it’s peppered throughout by a melodic brightness, accentuated by moments where the harp and guitar hit a kind of groove where they could easily have let the piece roll-on, leisurely exploring the notes of one another.
Those familiar with the playing of Toby and David will know that while they are both highly accomplished players, there is nothing flashy in their playing; their art is far more profound and is as much about the space between the notes they play. On these two improvised sessions, they demonstrate that skill admirably, creating journey-like music that transports the listener. This is music you will constantly return to.
While it’s a digital release, Holly Blackshaw’s artwork calls to mind early guitar soli artists, complementing the music perfectly therein.
All proceeds of sale for October will go to Shelter Cymru – sheltercymru.org.uk
Order via Bandcamp: https://cambrianrecords.bandcamp.com/album/harp-guitar-improvisations
Artwork by Holly Blackshaw