Firelight Trio: “The world is a different place. Everyone’s keen for a restart!”

It’s a very talented threesome that makes up the Firelight Trio, combining the many gifts of Phil Alexander’s accordion, Gavin Marwick’s fiddle and Ruth Morris’s Swedish nyckelharpa. They have known each other for years, catching up at festivals, sessions and through their various activities with Moishe’s Bagel, Bellevue Rendezvous, Gavin Marwick’s Journeyman project, among many others. But this is the first time they have collaborated as a trio. Indeed, their name invokes the sense of the sheer joy of friends gathering, which is much in keeping with the trio’s camaraderie, as Alexander explains: “It kind of conjures up the fact that we are very good friends and have spent many times playing tunes around the fire,” before jokingly adding after a pause, “also, we’ve all been in bands previously with names that were very difficult to spell!”

Their eponymous debut, launched at this year’s Celtic Connections, is rich with European vibes and flourishes. Scottish reels, French waltzes, Swedish polskas and exhilarating original tunes populate. It’s a thoroughly inspiring listen and reflective of the trio’s varied musical backgrounds, from Alexander’s classical, jazz, klezmer and Latin American music influences – “I’ve kind of been peeling away layers of my musical onion for many years!” – through to Morris’s own classical training and European influences – “I did classical piano, all the grades and everything, but it was at a festival in central France that I first came across folk music. Definitely the French music scene has been my biggest influence.” Marwick’s background also, touring across Europe as a traditional Scottish player, has made him witness to a “transmogrification” of influences and inspirations as he has travelled.

The album cover design too, a rising phoenix, is symbolic, with a particularly personal resonance for the trio, as Morris explains: “Gav had lymphoma before the pandemic. Fortunately, he’s recovered, so the phoenix couldn’t be more appropriate.”

“I'm delighted to be better,” smiles Marwick, “[and] eternally grateful to the NHS folk at Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary and also Help Musicians UK, who were particularly wonderful. But I think it’s more than just me, actually. The world is a different place, post-COVID, and I think the phoenix reflects the zeitgeist a bit; I think everyone’s keen for a restart!”

The elation of musical dialogue throughout the album is a delight, palpably evident in the thrilling opening track, ‘Chasen Senem / Filthy Lucre / The Latvians March’. “We’ve all pushed our instruments and our musical thinking in different directions from those in which they might normally have gone,” explains Alexander, “Ruth has been coming up with some amazing harmonies that’ve made me think about harmony lines in a different way. It’s been a real discovery of the different possibilities.”

European traditions are a key inspiration for the trio and are at the heart of the album’s sound. “The European trajectory of Firelight Trio is a wonderful thing,” notes Alexander, “I'm very proud that we are a kind of European trio. That’s a lovely thing to be doing.”

Read the review of Firelight Trio’s self-titled debut

This interview originally appeared in the March 2023 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today