Hirondelle

Hirondelle is an unlikely cohort of Northumbrian, Scottish and Provençal musicians with a just as improbable fascination for the Occitan culture that stretches from France and Spain via Monaco to Italy. Led by English folk duo The Brothers Gillespie, the ensemble also includes the classically-accented Trio Mythos – Sophie Renshaw (viola), Lucy Russell (violin) and Ruth Phillips (cello) – and, singing in Provençal dialect, the polyphonic trio Tant Que Li Siam, where Damien Toumi, Marie-Madeleine Martinet and Mario Leccia share vocal and percussion duties. It’s a sound that makes a concerted, if not always persuasive, claim for attention. There is much admirable musicianship on show, evidenced by the beautifully blended but bittersweet close-harmonies of the regret-filled ‘I Drew My Ship’ and the striking authenticity of the Provençal-derived instruments in the traditional chanson, ‘La Roumanço de Peire D’Aragoun’.

The tone throughout is decidedly mellow, the twinned ‘Northumberland I’ and ‘Northumberland II’ as plaintive as they are poetic. With Renshaw’s crafted string arrangements binding everything together, the dominating balefulness that colours tone and temperament eventually casts its own, satisfyingly dark shade. Tim Lane’s cosseting production makes its own contribution to proceedings, clothing the whole album in an alluring and intimate atmosphere.