Comprising the inimitable musical talents of award-winning vocalist and banjo player Rosie Hodgson, fiddler Rowan Piggott, and flautist and guitarist Philippe Barnes, KLOF Mag favourites The Wilderness Yet have delighted listeners and audiences alike since the group’s conception back in 2019. Despite Covid initially keeping them from touring, the themes of nature and the environment, which they seamlessly interweave into their unique work, tapped in a timely fashion into the lockdown resurgence of focus on the natural world, and the Anglo-Irish trio have since delighted audiences at festivals up and down the country, from Hatfield to Manchester. Reviewing the group’s previous album, What Holds the World Together, for KLOF in 2022, Robin Denselow felt that “what gives The Wilderness Yet an extra edge is their ability to add glorious acapella harmony singing to the mix”. I can’t imagine, therefore, a greater treat than ‘Westlin Winds’, the group’s latest record, which consists of nine tracks sung purely in acapella harmony, without a single instrument to be seen or heard. This format could not be more effective in showcasing these three exquisite voices immortalised together here in the prime of their musical careers.
The album commences with the title track, Westlin Winds, representing several of the many things that make this fourth studio album such a resounding triumph. After a deep and audible inhalation of breath, from both singers and listeners alike, the harmonies begin immediately and in stunning fashion. Hodgson’s simultaneously sweet and assertive vocals take the lead, as they do on the majority of the tracks here, but are balanced beautifully with Piggott and Barnes’ deeper ranges (each of which, in turn, complements the another with a precision that was surely as exacting to conjure as it is effortless to listen to). The track is based on the words of a Robert Burns poem, combining Hodgson’s affecting love of literature with Piggott’s Scottish heritage but also beautifully encompassing the group’s fascination with the relationship between humans and the natural world in which we live (if, indeed, such a distinction can be drawn at all). Westlin Winds is as much an ode to nature as anything else, and these themes of love and environment flow seamlessly as the album progresses. I would find it hard to believe that anyone could listen to this first track and not feel compelled to explore deeper into the album to see how these themes, and the exquisite harmonies through which they are conveyed, evolve.
The Goose and the Common presents, in some respects, a striking contrast. Based on an eighteenth-century protest rhyme about land rights, enclosure, and privatisation, the resentful feelings conveyed by the lyrics of this forceful chant are felt less in the tone and style of this track – although the 5/4 meter does mark an increase in pace and energy – but, rather, in the repeated refrains that reinforce the injustice of the “lords and ladies” taking what is “yours and mine”, instilling a sense of urgency into the song’s message. In conjunction with KLOF’s pre-release of the music video accompanying this track, Piggott told us that the themes of the song are “regrettably apt for our times”. Through this compelling arrangement, The Wilderness Yet make an invaluable and memorable contribution to a movement of folk musicians using their craft to raise awareness of these apparently timeless political issues affecting land rights, efforts which notably include Karine’s Polwart’s moving original track, The Stars Are Ours, written as part of the Right to Roam campaign in England.
Continuing in their quest to breathe fresh life into the old, Black Eyed Susan is the first of several traditional love ballads on the album, drawing attention away from the natural world temporarily to honour the traditional folk scene so beloved by the trio. Indeed, this transatlantic track made it back to Sheffield, where the group is based, via the Appalachian mountains, courtesy of Elizabeth LaPrelle. Similar themes of pining lost love are explored in the traditional track Mary and the Soldier, which comes later in the album. It tells a story of the ilk of traditional folk songs Pretty Ploughboy and The Lowlands of Holland, but is once again rendered unique by these exceptional three-part harmonies. Cocks are Crowing is a truly standout track, in which Barnes’ deep baritone is given the lead for the first time. Since it is perhaps the least prominent of the voices on the album in general, to hear it in such fine form in command of this track makes this one of the record’s high points. There is an almost dream-like, lullaby-esque quality to this night visiting song, which is heavily inspired by Irish group The Voice Squad, to whom The Wilderness Yet have previously been compared. Particularly striking in this version, however, is the group’s experimentation with pace; the vocals slow and then speed in places that feels entirely natural, and yet to achieve this simultaneously is a feat of great precision and technique.
Speaking of cocks crowing, I think many a listener (myself included) would be hard-pressed to identify the standalone original track on the album, although certainly not owing to any lack of originality… Rather, Chanticleer blends so beautifully with the traditional feel of the whole that it does not stick out as a particularly contemporary piece. It does stand out, however, as arguably the greatest triumph on the record; it is, without fail, the chorus that repeats itself over and over again in my head many hours after listening. Hodgson and Piggott claim that it was a song written during an “angry car journey”, and there are certainly dark themes at play, as represented by the minor key which creeps into the verses. Nature takes front and centre once more, and, amidst reflections on deforestation, factory farming, hunting, and the fragile foundations of democracy, there is a second nod to land rights in the form of the sheep, who are “fleeced of their own right to roam” by their human overseers. We also meet Raynard the Fox, perhaps a little Easter egg of sorts for fans familiar with Charlie, the fox being hunted down during their previous album, bridging between two songs which hammer home the fact that this trio is not afraid to grapple with controversial topics. Despite this, however, the song still manages to achieve a cosy, almost festive feel to the chorus, presumably inspired to some degree by the rather different track of the same name sung by Maddy Prior (to whom Hodgson has been compared) on Steeleye Span’s festive album, Winter (2004). While the chanticleer – or cockerel – in the latter case draws attention to men who “stare amazing” at the beauties of the natural world, however, The Wilderness Yet depict this character as an anthropomorphised, almost tyrannical figure, drawing attention to all the ways we humans use the natural world for our own benefit, at the cost of nature, and emphasising that we have “been too long in the dark” about these issues. What a poignant, masterful tack, led by Piggott, and exquisitely delivered. If, heaven forbid, you only happen to listen to one song on the album, please make sure it’s this one.
Other highlights include traditional Irish slip-jig/ reel Na Ceannabháin Bhána/ The Mountain Road, an “instrumental” interlude which is delivered via the most brilliant of instruments: three powerful voices in perfect harmony. This lively track picks up the pace of what is a gentle album overall, and will certainly make a rousing addition to the trio’s live repertoire. The group even gives Jon Boden a run for his money with their rendition of Byker Hill, although Bellowhead’s delightfully clamorous backing to their version of the classic covered by the likes of Martin Carthy and A. L. Lloyd is replaced by a serenity that allows these incredible voices to shine through with what is undoubtedly the most joyful singing on the album. Perhaps linked to the familial associations of the song for Hodgson, who learned it from her father, this merry quality infects the listener with ease. Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy, another beautiful traditional love song, is the perfect way to round off, with the high notes showing off the full dexterity of the vocals from all three, just at the moment when we think there are no more surprises in store.
Back in 2022, KLOF Mag described The Wilderness Yet’s third album as “surely one of the folk albums of the year”, a bold claim which proved unassailable when What Holds the World Together leapt into the Official Folk Albums Chart for the year. If Westlin Winds is not destined for the same fate in 2024, I would be very much surprised. The Wilderness Yet have surpassed even their own extremely high standards; they have taken the much-lauded acapella aspect of their work and given it the time and space to breathe and flourish, producing an album that melds tradition and originality into an iridescent vocal soundscape. While this was a summer release, it will undoubtedly make for delightful listening the whole year round.
Westlin Winds (out now) Self Released
Digital: https://thewildernessyet.bandcamp.com/album/westlin-winds
CD/Vinyl: https://www.thewildernessyet.com/shop.html