Songs of Separation

The star-studded folk ensemble has become a staple of both stage and CD – witness the likes of The Full English or the Elizabethan Sessions projects. This set features ten prominent female performers – Eliza Carthy, Hannah James, Karine Polwart, Rowan Rheingans and Hazel Askew among them – drawn from England and Scotland. It was conceived by bassist Jenny Hill, who was on the island of Eigg during the Scottish referendum, so the title refers to a separation of national identities as well as personal and social/political separations.

These are all musicians of the first order but sometimes the mass chorale and faultless playing sounds as if the whole rather drags, despite the brilliance of the separate parts. The best tracks provide dynamic contrasts – the powerful cross-singing chorale of ‘Sad the Climbing’, Eliza Carthy's ‘Cleaning the Stones’, or the ‘Unst Boast Song’ from the Shetlands. Kate Young's ‘Sea King’ and Rowan Rheingans’ ‘Soil and Soul’ explore the ballad tradition's supernatural wing, and these have the most distinctive arrangements. You can sense that it is on the stage, performed live, that Songs of Separation will truly spring to life.