The Jacken Elswyth-curated Betwixt & Between tape series has become one of the most reliably excellent sources of new music over the last seven or so years. Elswyth is a central figure in the experimental/avant-garde folk scene that’s the most interesting thing to happen in for a long time, so she’s perfectly placed to cherry-pick from a wide range of genre-busting and boundary-pushing artists. For the twelfth volume of Betwixt & Between, she has combined singer and multi-instrumentalist Elspeth Anne with The Côr Meibion Gwalia, a Welsh-language male choir active since 1967. Songs on both sides of the release have a suitably festive feel.
Elspeth Anne, who brings a punkish attitude and DIY aesthetic to traditional song, gets the first side. The instrumental intro, Llangua Church Organ/The Melt, serves as a scene-setter: trickling field recordings bleed into a short but evocative organ piece. It runs into Cold Mountain, on which a stunning multi-tracked vocal sits atop a slowly pulsing drone. Elspeth is as inspired by American folk and country music as by the traditional songs of Britain, and there is a wild Appalachian feel to much of what she does. This song is no exception. Halfway through, the drone drops out, leaving the vocals airborne. It’s deliberately rough-sounding in terms of production but perfectly controlled.
There is a short field recording of hail on Ynys Môn, which acts as a kind of cleanser, before we get a wonderfully decayed rendition of The Coventry Carol, one of the oldest and darkest of Christmas carols, full of graphic depictions of the Massacre of the Innocents. This version backs up the grim detail with a deep and disturbing drone and a staticky undertone. Side A ends with another piece that blends church organ with watery recordings. It’s a bleak midwinter for sure, but a beautiful one nonetheless.
The Côr Meibion Gwalia, with the help of the equally venerable London Northumbrian Piping Group, use their side to showcase a variety of seasonal wassails. Here We Come A-Wassailing is perhaps the best known, its instantly memorable melody is made to be sung collaboratively, and the choir do it justice, the lo-fi recording only adding to the feeling of shared experience that gives seasonal music its strange magic. Gower Wassail is gentler, backed by subtle acoustic guitar that snakes in and out of the vocal melody. It makes for a song that is more ambivalent than we’re used to from a wassail, even verging on the uncanny. The brisk Nos Galan – Welsh for New Year’s Eve, and sung to a tune more familiar as Deck the Halls – conjures an atmosphere of boozy celebration, while closing track Joy Health Love and Peace/Dryw Bach is a lovely bilingual carol full of grace, fellow-feeling and melodic complexity.
Elswyth has stated that this will probably be the last instalment of the Betwixt & Between series. If that turns out to be true, then it provides a fitting full stop, perfectly balancing the hope and the strangeness that have been woven through all twelve releases. As a whole, the project provides an essential snapshot of British folk music at its most raw and indomitable.
Betwixt & Between 12 (December 8th, 2025) Betwixt and Between
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