Brìghde Chaimbeul
Carry Them with Us
tak:til / Glitterbeat
14 April 2023
It is a quirk of musical fate that some of the most traditional forms can produce the most experimental sounds. Brìghde Chaimbeul is an instrumentalist from Skye who is steeped in the musical and oral traditions of the islands and highlands of Scotland but whose music is as invigorating and new as anything currently being produced in either folk or contemporary avant-garde circles. Her chosen instrument – the Scottish smallpipes – enables her to create two simultaneous drones and pick out a melody over the top, a technique that gives equal space to modernist composition and generations-old folk song, merging the two seamlessly and with dreamlike clarity. The Reeling, her 2019 solo debut, was met with unanimous praise from across a vast spectrum of critical outlets, and Carry Them With Us looks set to gain even greater acclaim.
Of course, it does your avant-garde credentials no harm at all when you’ve got a genuine giant of experimental music as your sideman. For Carry Them With Us, Brìghde Chaimbeul has enlisted the help of Canadian saxophonist Colin Stetson, who may not be a household name in folk music circles (featured in Folk Radio’s KLOF mix series here) but is royalty in the pages of The Quietus and The Wire. His job here is twofold: he plays alongside Chaimbeul, thickening the overall sound, solidifying it, and bringing out the subtleties and complexities that Chaimbeul hears in her head. But he also provides a sense of tension, occasionally departing from the melody and ranging around it for a while. Chaimbeul has spoken about wanting Stetson’s saxophone to be an extension of her pipes, and moments during the record where the two threaten for a few seconds to pull away from each other serve as a reminder of the closeness and affinity that underpins these compositions.
The affinity and the tension are clearly displayed in Crònan (i), a studio improvisation that lurches into being like something pulled from the mud and then takes flight as the heavy drone imperceptibly shifts until it is light and gauzy, or its fleet-footed companion piece, Uguviu (ii), which bubbles and twists with lithe self-assurance. Towards the end of ‘S Mi Gabhail an Rathaid (I Take The Road), Stetson’s refrain is isolated for a few moments, fluttering above the underlying drone, daring and deceptively simple.
A common misconception about drone-based music is that it doesn’t go anywhere or do anything. Chaimbeul’s tunes ride roughshod over this notion, unfolding, expanding, and sometimes exploding. On the opening track Pililiù (The Call of the Redshank), the melody is wild, loose and expansive to begin with, and then more intricate, repetitive and trance-like. Tha Fonn Gun Bhi Trom (I Am Disposed of Mirth) builds in a tight spiral, the primary melody winding in on itself as offshoots of sound spark away into the ether. The effect is something like a musical Catherine wheel.
Tha Fonn Gun Bhi Trom began its life as a waulking song, sung communally by Scottish cloth-workers to keep time. Indeed, many of Chaimbeul’s tunes have their roots in the oral tradition, and this ties in with the way her instrument is learned and played. The pipes are often taught using a phonetic singing technique, and in these tunes, they approximate the human voice without ever lapsing into imitation.
Banish the Giant of Doubt & Despair is nimble, punchy and rhythmic, though fraught with a barely concealed peril, while Pìobaireachd Nan Eun, one of a clutch of tunes directly inspired by bird calls, is mournful and melancholic. It marks the first instance of Chaimbeul’s singing, and the sudden insertion of a human voice in this otherwise wild landscape feels almost uncanny. The same effect is employed on the album’s final track, Bonn Beinn Eadarra (The Haunting). Detached but not emotionless, Chaimbeul’s voice hovers above the closing moments like a strange benediction. It brings the listener back to consciousness after an extraordinary experience that has slowly begun to resemble a series of strange, beautiful dream-stories, told with flair, nuance and incredible technical proficiency, but more importantly, with a real sense of ambition and innovation.
Carry Them With Us is out 14 April 2023 on tak:til (Glitterbeat)
Pre-order on Bandcamp: https://brighdechaimbeul.bandcamp.com/album/carry-them-with-us