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Track Listings
| 1. The Climber |
| 2. Sir Patrick Spens |
| 3. Wyatt's Song Of Reproach |
| 4. There Is A Music |
| 5. Even Such Is Time |
| 6. The Iron Stone |
| 7. The Badger |
| 8. Political Lies |
| 9. The Yellow Snake |
| 10. Loftus Jones |
| 11. Bacchus |
| 12. The Praises Of The Mountain Hare |
| 13. To God In God's Absence |
| 14. Verses At Ellesmere |
| 15. Henceforth |
Product Description
Jazzwise, (Andy Robson), February 2007
(4 stars) Backed by longtime collaborators who walk Williamson's dreamscapes as fluently as any may. Grim but wonderful.
Album Description
Artist background/Music: In bringing Robin Williamson together with improvising musicians ECM has enabled him to take his visions of spontaneously free flowing sung poetry to a new level of development.
On this disc - recorded in the Welsh countryside in autumn 2005 - he is joined by Barre Phillips, the great American bass veteran who has played with everyone from Ornette Coleman to Jimmy Giuffre to Archie Shepp and who once worked with the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Bernstein. Phillips has been a contributor to ECM since 1971, appearing on discs with Dave Holland, Paul Bley and Terje Rypdal as well as on his own albums, including the landmark Mountainscapes. Mat Maneri, unchallenged as the most outstanding viola player in improvised music, blends ideas from baroque music to Indian music to bop and free playing into a seamless unique personal style. Admired by the scene's connoisseurs, Maneri placed highly in the recently published DownBeat Critics Poll. Ale Moller, leading architect of the Swedish folk revival has a natural affinity for Robin's background in traditional music and colours the work brilliantly with his flamboyant playing on various folk instruments. Moller's ECM albums with Lena Willemark and Frifot have been both critical and popular successes. At the centre is Williamson himself, superb singer, poet, improviser, multi-instrumentalist.
Material includes: 'The Iron Stone' and 'The Yellow Snake', well known from the Incredible String Band years; 'Political Lies', 'Verses at Ellesmere' and 'To God In God's Absence', important pieces from Williamson's solo career, rearranged for this recording; the traditional Scots ballad 'Sir Patrick Spens' in a radical reworking. Plus an "early music" treatment of the old tune 'Loftus Jones' and free settings of poetry by Ralph Waldo Emerson, Thomas Wyatt, Walter Raleigh and John Clare as well as Williamson himself. 28-page booklet includes all lyrics, liner notes by Williamson, and session photos.
Personnel: Robin Williamson - vocals, Celtic harp, Mohan vina, Chinese flute, whistles, tabwrdd drum, Mat Maneri - viola, Hardanger fiddle, Barre Phillips - double-bass, Ale Moller -mandola, accordion, clarino, shawm, natural flutes, drone flutes, whistles, jaw harps.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
As another old ISB fan, I am still at the stage of catching up with the immense quantity and scale of what RW has done since the 1970's, and I have to say that some of it is not an easy first listen, and this one I have found the most difficult so far among what I have sampled. I have to be completely in the mood to listen to it, which perhaps explains why I have not yet, even after nearly 2 months, got to the stage where I want to hear it again soon after playing it. Only the knowledge that persistence with his work has always been worthwhile in the past has kept me making the occasional attempt to listen again, and I am now beginning to do so with some anticipation rather than more negative feelings. RW always stretched his vocal capabilities to the limits, which was not universally appreciated. Maturity has lowered his vocal range but not his ambition and this means that you have to suspend criticality if you want to stay on his side at times (and no, he does not always hit the note exactly, but that could be said of some of his early work as well!). A good test is whether you can, without feeling slightly embarrassed, play the album to someone else who is not predisposed to approve - I think that it fails that test in one or two places.
The album is diverse in style, with a complex mix of accompanied spoken word, semi-chanted songs, more conventional songs and one instrumental. As for "Bacchus", I just do not know what to make of it - the "melody" completely defeats me. What disturbs me is his willingness to be deliberately atonal to Western ears on some of the tracks ("Bacchus" and "Henceforth", for example). Even for an ISB aficionado, it does not make for easy listening. I could wish that he had not mixed up the less accessible stuff with the more easily assimilated material, as it is difficult to match one's mood to everything here in quick succession. As a result, I do not feel that the overall effect is completely successful, however much one may find snippets to enjoy on repeated listening. Having seen him live in 2008 in an intimate village hall setting, in which the force of his personality and his immense capabilities could easily carry the occasion, I know that any failing to appreciate his recorded work is probably mine and not his, but how many are willing to give the time to his projects that they seem to me to need?
The album is diverse in style, with a complex mix of accompanied spoken word, semi-chanted songs, more conventional songs and one instrumental. As for "Bacchus", I just do not know what to make of it - the "melody" completely defeats me. What disturbs me is his willingness to be deliberately atonal to Western ears on some of the tracks ("Bacchus" and "Henceforth", for example). Even for an ISB aficionado, it does not make for easy listening. I could wish that he had not mixed up the less accessible stuff with the more easily assimilated material, as it is difficult to match one's mood to everything here in quick succession. As a result, I do not feel that the overall effect is completely successful, however much one may find snippets to enjoy on repeated listening. Having seen him live in 2008 in an intimate village hall setting, in which the force of his personality and his immense capabilities could easily carry the occasion, I know that any failing to appreciate his recorded work is probably mine and not his, but how many are willing to give the time to his projects that they seem to me to need?
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
This is a companion album to his last ECM record 'Skirting The River Road', with Maneri and Moller on both.
It just gets better and better with every hearing - the challenging becomes richly rewarding and the pleasant becomes truly beautiful.
With 'Skirting' and 'Iron Stone', Williamson has matched his 60's work on 'Hangman's' and 'Wee Tam/ Big Huge' - no higher praise is possible.
It just gets better and better with every hearing - the challenging becomes richly rewarding and the pleasant becomes truly beautiful.
With 'Skirting' and 'Iron Stone', Williamson has matched his 60's work on 'Hangman's' and 'Wee Tam/ Big Huge' - no higher praise is possible.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
Williamson's 3rd ECM record carries on with the idiom that evolved on 'Skirting The River Road' - a 'fusion' style that extends to both the musical vocabulary and the lyrics, with Williamson's own material in each case seamlessly woven in with that of other poets/composers. Again the results are dazzlingly distinctive, with a massive range which includes lovesong, philosophical musing, dark narrative, sardonic humour and (in abundance) sheer beauty of sound.
The ensemble playing is superb.
A must-hear for anyone who has ever been touched by the Incredible String Band magic.
The ensemble playing is superb.
A must-hear for anyone who has ever been touched by the Incredible String Band magic.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Moody but worthwhile
I bought this album mainly because "The Iron Stone" is still one of my all-time favourite String Band songs. Read more
Published on 30 Oct 2009 by Stephen J. Leighton
Every kiss is a kiss of farewell...
Having been a RW fan since 1968, I lost touch with his work around the time of "Songs of Love & Parting" when I emmigrated from Britain. Read more
Published on 12 Dec 2007 by B. Armstrong
Dreadful
As a lifelong ISB supporter I bought this since I liked "The Iron Stone" and "Yellow Snake" from the original ISB records. It is simply ghastly, discordant, unstructured and so on. Read more
Published on 21 Sep 2007 by M. R. F. Matthews
More Genius
For me, the Incredible String Band were always Robin Williamson plus passengers. I was buying their albums when I was eleven (40 years ago) and wishing I could rub out everything... Read more
Published on 22 Mar 2007 by Ca Marsh
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