| Gift of Music' - a review of the Songs of Frost & Fire CD by |
| Rod Hancox - Somerset County Gazette - November 2004 |
| A SEASONAL gift of music comes in the shape of a new CD from the locally-based Roots Quartet. If the prospect of female vocals floating over cello recorders, keyboards and guitars sets your heart aflutter, ‘Songs of Frost and Fire’ is for you. |
| Besides the European influence on this CD there is also some honest experimentation and new songwriting which sits not just comfortably alongside the tried and tested but head and shoulders above it. |
| This mix of a capella and instrumentally augmented songs adds up to a celebration of the seasonal that Ashley Hutchings or John Kirkpatrick would also be proud of…but it is also a celebration of woman power. Songs of Frost and Fire simply bursts with energy. With gorgeous harmonies and heart-warming melodies. And it all seems do effortless…even for a quartet of three. |
| Following a forceful opener and the sustained mellowness of The Holly and The Ivy, the trio can no longer contain themselves as they burst into the lush lullaby of A La Nanita Nana, a joyous Spanish carol. Then having secured the future of all the apples in Gloucestershire with a lively attack on the customary wassailing song, the album springs the second of its several surprises with Lovely Mary, a delightful instrumental on keyboard piano which although freshly composed sounds as familiar as church bells on Sunday. Despite its beauty, Lovely Mary turns out to be a gateway to the album’s centrepiece, Robin and Marian, in which an exquisite fragile breathy lead vocal is pursued (through the forest) and ultimately entrapped by some insistent recorder playing. Despite nudging the six-minute mark, Robin and Marian is not a second too long. The CD is worth acquiring for this alone and if Songs of Frost and Fire attracts the exposure it deserves I can see other artists wanting to tackle it. |
| But there are more gems to come. Another new song, Dream, is a clever restless echoey a capella while Peace of Night is astonishing, both intriguing and compelling as it juxtaposes something almost spiritual with tidal harmonies delivered with the vocal wah-wah pedal jammed down. As its title suggests, this song contains healing properties. Robin and Marian may be the best song on this CD but Peace of Night is my favourite. |
| Any album worth its birth leaves you with something memorable and RQ’s immaculate closing cover of Snow Falls (a celebration of renewal) demands reverance without straying into overblown grandeur. Like Dylan once did, they suddenly go electric and the recorder is ditched for what sounds like lead-guitar played like a violin to deliver distant eeriness reminiscent of mist on the moors. |
| I gush, so my reservations are slight, though one concerns the programming, in that an opening song is a win ‘em or lose ‘em slot, and Diu vi Salvi Regina ( whilst no doubt harmonically ‘correct’) reaches a Corsican stridency which might perturb some English ears. And if you listen to this CD a little too pickily, you may pick up on the odd flaw here and there. |
| Taken as a whole Songs of Frost and Fire is as welcome as a shot of sloe gin in front of the fire. It is mature but brave, intensive yet familiar, fun but Cecil Sharp authoritative. |
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Rod Hancox
Somerset County Gazette
November 2004 |
