Petrichor

Accordionist Paul Hutchinson, of Belshazzar’s Feast and The Pagoda Project, is a well-known and highly-regarded figure on the folk scene, and Petrichor (the word for the earthy smell after rain), while emerging from our year in lockdown, ranges fairly wide and far in its map of tunes and musical accomplices. These include Swedish trio Väsen, Belgian duo Naragonia, pianist Karen Axelrod and violinist Shira Kammen from the US, Australian cellist Allye Sinclair and British sax band Sheepstealers.

The mellifluous title-track opens the set, composed by Hutchinson at the start of lockdown last March, before Väsen step in for ‘Time for Change’, a workshop tune from Halsway Manor. The Americans step up for ‘The Oregon Trail’ with Pagoda Project clarinettist Karen Wimhurst, while the sax trio-plus-bass that are The Sheepstealers take the lead on tunes like ‘Shapwick/ Tipping Point’. ‘Promised Land’ is a musical reaction to the sight of armed guards, dogs and barbed wire at the Calais border, while standout ‘To Naragonia’ is the tastiest cut, with the Belgian duo’s diatonic button accordion to the fore. The title of the closing track – ‘Minicab Road’ – is an anagram of a UK minister infamously ignorant of the popular Dover-Calais trade route.