Ghost Owl

It's boom time for bird-themed music. Folksinger Sam Lee has his nightingales project; composer Cosmo Sheldrake's Wake Up Calls samples recordings of endangered birds. And now Ghost Owl, which came about after wildlife conservationist and filmmaker/photographer Simon Hurwitz asked Brooks Williams to compose some music to accompany a series of short films. Williams is a long-serving purveyor of rootsy, full-blooded acoustic guitar. With touring on hold, he teamed up with violinist Aaron Catlow and the duo found themselves with an album's worth of owl-inspired tunes.

These ten instrumentals evoke images of the majestic creature with the heart-shaped face. The marriage of guitar and violin recalls the style of Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick and, occasionally, of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli. The title-track and ‘Rene's Garden’ are sinuous and atmospheric, the ethereal violin on ‘Tippers’ Field’ is suitably owlish while ‘First Dusk’ is an old-time waltz. With the bonus of Hurwitz's wonderful owl photography illustrating the CD, Ghost Owl is a delight.