Alors, On Danse!

It’s a sign of the times that a ‘live’ album currently equals a livestream rather than concert performance. While the pair’s debut album, recorded during a livestream performance in October last year, creates an engaging sense of looseness and spontaneity, audience atmosphere is noticeably lacking. It’s doubly poignant given that their repertoire is the different folk dances of the pan-European balfolk scene. Clarinettist Helen Gentile of Threepenny Bit fame and fiddler Lewis Wood from Granny’s Attic ably complement each other as they serve up an array of self-penned numbers and traditional fare from Scotland, Sweden, Finland, Brittany and beyond.

They start and finish things with schottisches and it’s instructive to compare the somewhat hesitant opener, ‘Sunshine’, with the confident, vibrant ‘Amazing Scottisches’. Foot-tapping constitutes the only percussion and initially they are, as it were, finding their feet. Once found, their Finnish waltz ‘Metsakukkia’, the mazurka ‘Nina’ and the Circassian Circle ceilidh dance, ‘Trip to Barnard’, stand out in particular. Throughout, the clarinet and fiddle interweave seamlessly and the playing is faultless. And so, we dance! What a shame, though, that it has to be in the privacy of our own homes. Maybe next time.