Some want honey - Gabriel Moreno's 'Nights in the Belly of Bohemia' reviewed

My favourite album of the year so far is 'Nights in the Belly of Bohemia' by Gabriel Moreno. This sixth studio album by Moreno shows the singer/songwriter at the height of his powers. The London-based Gibraltarian poet and musician explores the dilemmas of living authentically as an artist within an often-unsympathetic capitalist system. In ‘Lovers, Dreamers,’ he observes, “They’re selling cakes in Montmartre / which cost more than the art, / did you trade your Bedouin heart / for a hit in the charts, did the muse completely depart?...”

Using a nylon-strung guitar and a deep, dark voice, Moreno self-mythologises – he’s a defiant troubadour, “stuck,” as he sings, “in the belly of Bohemia,” that liminal space where artist and audience are free to share exuberance and deep meaning.

Moreno's sound – beautifully complemented by touches of violin, bass, percussion and piano provided by his Bohemian friends – is often compared to Leonard Cohen, but the ghosts of Baudelaire and Keats are also cheering him on from the wings. The opening tracks, ‘Edge of a Dream,’ ‘Lightning Bolt’ and ‘Bohemia,’ are all delightfully sing-along-able tracks yet Moreno never sounds trite or predictable. His unique lyrical style deploys romanticism, surrealism and symbolism, juxtaposing obscure words (‘ebullience,’ ‘splendorous,’) with slightly comical, everyday words (‘wonky,’ ‘fizzle.’)

His lyrics are often self-mocking, at times apologetic. In ‘Bohemia’ he sings, “I know that you need to go ‘coz someone has to keep / this boat afloat...” while ‘Castles’ begins, “Forgive me son, / there is no stash under the stairs...” and goes on “...I have no house in Hampstead Heath...” Poets and musicians are often not very rich, nor very practical. Unlike Arthur Ransome’s ‘Swallows and Amazons,’ Moreno admits, “...The books I own / won’t teach you how to sail or swim...” But perhaps there are other important things to pass onto our children: “I have no sports car on the drive, / typewriters, turntables bore truths that once kept me alive...” Moreno seems to be inviting his son to inherit his artistic sensibility: “...Take this pen, take this shield / to slay the beast of stagnation...”

The underlying themes of the album – the importance of nurturing our true nature, of allowing people to produce something of real value – seem to be encapsulated by a line from the closing track, ‘Churn Out Gold’: “some want honey and others want the bees to churn out gold.” The deeply-moving songs on Nights in the Belly of Bohemia – and the accompanying poetry book of the same title (published by Poetry Mondays Press) – are things of real value and testify that, although they may not yield a hit in the charts, the muse has certainly not abandoned Gabriel Moreno.

This is an extended version of my album review that appears in the June 2025 issue of Songlines magazine, #208.  

Both 'Nights in the Belly of Bohemia' - the album (Poetry Monday Records) and the poetry collection of the same title (published by Poetry Monday Press) are available now. 

Album anniversary, band projects and gallivanting

Busking at a 'busk stop' at
Wimborne Minster Folk Festival 

It’s hard to believe that this week marks two years since the release of my album ‘In the Emptiness.’ One kind reviewer described it as a collection of “highly original songs and atmospheric instrumentals that captivate listeners with their unique charm...” (SLAP Magazine.) I had intended to release a follow-up album by now. I certainly have enough songs and tunes to fill another album but I seem to have got side-tracked. One challenge has been that I invested in a new digital interface to help with the recording process and familiarising myself with this seems, paradoxically,  to have slowed me down. But I’ve also become distracted by being much busier with solo performances and rehearsing with not one but two bands that I’ve joined in the past year.

First, there's Bullo Pill - a dark, experimental folk-rock collective based around Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. We’ve been practicing regularly and did our first gig in February as part of the Gloucester Folk Trail. Then, there's the other band, Brandy for the Parson, based around North Worcestershire, with a vibe similar to the folk-rock bands of the late 60s/early 70s, (bands like Pentangle, The Strawbs and Fairport Convention.)

In between band practices and local solo gigs, I’ve been gallivanting to Newcastle (for a dulcimer-players’ ‘Spring Fling’), to Edinburgh (for some impromptu playing in some of the old town’s best pubs), to Somerset (for Dulcimers at Halsway Manor – the National Centre for Folk Arts) and, last weekend, to Dorset,  busking at various ‘busk stops’ at Wimborne Minster Folk Festival.

There are a few more gigs – and a few more festivals – before the summer’s out*, and then I’ve promised myself in the autumn I will make a concerted effort to record the tracks for the next album. You heard it here first!

* For up-to-date information on my gigs check my Facebook page or my website www.tonygillam.co.uk 

Musical escapology - David Harland's 'The Escapist'

One album I’ve been playing repeatedly since its release last autumn is David Harland’s The Escapist. If, like me, you’re a fan of the music that came out of Windham Hill Records, you’ll relish this record. On previous releases, Minneapolis-based guitarist Harland has explored singer-songwriter territory alongside instrumental music but here he offers us an entire album of exquisite solo acoustic guitar. Making full use of tapping, harmonics and unusual tunings, The Escapist would not have been out of place in the Windham Hill catalogue, alongside the music of William Ackerman, Michael Hedges and Alex de Grassi. 

Harland has certainly succeeded in his intention to create a meditative record to help listeners escape from the stresses of modern life. The cover art features a Magritte-esque image of a birdcage/head with the cage door ajar, suggesting worries have flown away. 

Here and there, there are sympathetic touches of cello and violin from Cierra Alise Hill and e-Bowed ambient electric guitar from producer Matt Patrick who also deserves credit for capturing the pristine sound of the album. If you're looking for a musical getaway, I can highly recommend The Escapist and I look forward to hearing more from this talented composer/guitarist. 

(This is an extended version of my album review first published in Songlines magazine #204 in January 2025.)  

From record shop gigs to symphony halls and everything in between - The Rheingans Sisters, Billy Mitchell & Bob Fox, UFQ and Warduna

In October I reviewed the Rheingans Sisters’ album ‘Start Close.’ Then, in November, I was lucky enough to see the sisters perform an unplugged mini-gig at Carnival Records in Malvern in Worcestershire. It was my first visit to Carnival Records and it was wonderful to see Anna and Rowan perform a few songs in such an intimate and convivial setting. They joked that they should have played ‘The Road to Malvern.’ Although I know Malvern well, I never knew the town had been immortalised in a fiddle tune but it turns out ‘Road to Malvern’ is a ‘modern old-time tune’ composed by West Virginia fiddler Jim Childress and is named after Malvern in Arkansas (Childress’s wife’s hometown) – which is funny because Malvern, Worcestershire, is my late wife’s hometown.

Just up the road in Worcester, Huntingdon Hall does its bit for folk music too. In October, they hosted Billy Mitchell & Bob Fox. Billy Mitchell is a former member of Lindisfarne while Bob Fox is a singer/guitarist who has been described as "possessing one of the best folk-singing voices in England ... evoking the songs of the northeast, with power and clarity.” (Bob’s version of ‘Bonny at Morn’ is exquisite.) The two old friends were witty and entertaining, gently mocking the strange way non-Geordies talk. Their encore – the Mamas & The Papas' ‘Monday, Monday’ – had the audience irresistibly singing those famous “bah-da, bah-da-da-da’s.” 

In November, it was the turn of the Urban Folk Quartet (or UFQ, as they’re affectionally known) to take to the Huntingdon Hall stage for an exhilarating show. I’m looking forward to seeing them at Purbeck Valley Folk Festival this coming August, along with, to name but a few,  Elephant Sessions, Mishra and... oh, yes, The Rheingans Sisters! 

That brings us full circle, except to add that just last month, I was lucky enough to see Norwegian dark-folk band Wardruna live at Birmingham Symphony Hall. In my preceding blog post, you can read my interview with Einar Selvik - frontman of Wardruna, talking about the new album 'Birna'. Having had the pleasure of interviewing Einar twice over recent years, and having reviewed several of Warduna's albums, it was wonderful to finally see the band live. They didn't disappoint, creating an atmosphere as dark and mysterious as a Norwegian forest in winter. Along with their stirringly full sound of drums, vocals and ancient Scandinavian instruments, we were treated to a solo Skaldic version of 'Voluspa' with Einar accompanying his plaintive singing on the kravik-lyre, reverberating around a spellbound Symphony Hall.
 

An Interview with Einar Selvik of Warduna

Photo credit: Morten Munthe

Last November I spoke with Einar Selvik of Norwegian dark-folk band Warduna. The band were touring Europe at the time, ahead of the release of their album, 'Birna,' a sonic journey into the world of the she-bear. Einar was so generous with his time, and his answers provided so many insights into the craft of songwriting, recording and performance, that I’m posting the interview in full here, as Wardruna continue to tour the UK and Ireland.

TG:  I understand that Birna was written and recorded between 2021 and 2024 so did you begin work on it immediately after the release of the album Kvitravn?  Did it begin as an extension of that album – or was it an entirely new concept in your mind from the outset? 

ES: It's a totally separate thing. The whole process is quite slow. To begin with, I spent a lot of time finding the bear’s voice, writing poetry, recording certain ideas, doing lots of research, both in terms of the historical aspects and relation between man and bear, but also scientific research about the bear itself. In between touring and whatever else I was doing. I've had periods where I've done recording during this, yes, so it has sort of been a process where I've been visiting and revisiting the album for these four years, more or less. But the intensive period where you start really chiselling down to what becomes the final album,  that has been the last year I would say, even though a lot of the poetry and idea material and even some of the songs were started quite a few years ago.

TG: The use of the choir, Koret Artemis, is very effective and adds another dimension to tracks like ‘Jord til Ljos’ and ‘Himinndotter.’ What inspired you to use a choir on certain songs? Did you compose the songs with a choir in mind, or did that idea come later? 

ES: Going back to the bear, I felt I could tell the story in a more powerful and direct poetic way if I chose the female aspect, both with its connection to Mother Earth and how the bear in its annual cycle is sort of mirroring the cycle of life in nature. Not only the earth itself, but also movements of many other animals that happens in these annual cycles and so I felt that the female aspect would create a stronger connection. And that also connects it to me wanting to – or envisioning working – with an all-female choir like Artemis. So it was composed with the choir in mind and ‘Himinndotter’ was actually one of the first things I started to work on with this album and it was written always with the female choir in mind. I wanted a choir that didn't sing in the normal, classical way but one that had a broader variety of styles and Artemis work a lot with ethnic music from all over the planet. They do traditional folk music songs and things like that, so I felt it would be a good match. I’ve had them on my radar for a while. And when I approached them, they were really, really excited about the potential collaboration. Yes, I'm very happy with how it turned out. It was a good match.

Birna album cover | Cover artwork by Øivind A. Myksvoll

TG: ‘Dvaledraumar’ is an ambitious track running over more than fifteen minutes. It seems to represent the hibernating bear, with its slowed-down heartbeat. What was the inspiration for this track and how did you go about creating it?

ES: Yes, ‘Dvaledraumar’ means ‘dormant dreams.’ So, yes, it is the bear and its winter sleep and its dream. I wanted to mimic the heartbeats. Bears don’t really hibernate as such –  it sort of semi-hibernates and one of the things it does is it lowers its heartrate to about nine or ten beats per minute. I chose nine, for conceptual reasons, and so that’s the pulse that runs through that whole musical piece. The song is also a collaboration where we invited Swedish film artist and music artist Jonna Jinton to collaborate – it's something we've been discussing for a long time – most prominently through the field recording she did up in northern Sweden of ‘singing ice,’ (basically, when water freezes in a certain way on some of these lakes the ice starts to ‘sing’ for a day or two, and Jonna has captured that.) So, that is basically the sound that is serenading the bear throughout. And the instruments were chosen to have particularly relevance to the bear, in one or the other way. The type of lyre I'm playing is the Finnish and Karelian kantele, which comes from ‘bear country’ and is also a tradition very much connected to the bear historically. Towards the end of it you hear the sound of the melting ice and also the bear is sort of woken by a willow flute – a real willow flute, not a plastic one. This is a flute that can only be made in those weeks right before the leaves pop from the willow, so it’s very much a spring instrument, an overtone flute, performed by a master Norwegian traditional flute player Hans Fredrik Jacobson.

TG: Since we last spoke in 2021, shortly after the release of Kvitravn, Wardruna have been on a fairly unrelenting tour of Europe and America and, in 2025, you’re off to Australia and touring Europe again. How do you find time to relax ...and to compose and record new material?  

ES: That's always a challenge. I'm used to living and planning two-three years ahead. What can I say? It's a challenge and a discipline. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work, but the goal is to be present in whatever situation I’m in. So when I'm on tour, I'm on tour and all my energy goes into that and to do that in a healthy way so that, when I get home and have space for creation, I can actually spend my time doing that. Thankfully, even though it was a lot of concerts in the aftermath of the whole COVID void, I would say it was a good balance of doing tours in bulks and then you have enough time in between tours to actually have time off and time to do different things and, like I said before, this is not an album that’s written in a short time span. I like to spend time in between because, for many people, they write an album and then they go into studio and record it in a very intensive period. But I can’t work it in that way. So it's juggling these things and creating when it feels good to create and when there’s space to create, that's the way to do it for me.

TG: Wardruna have performed at Red Rocks in Colorado and the Acropolis in Athens. Can you say which places you most enjoyed performing in and why?

ES:  We've been so lucky from the very beginning in terms of the spaces and places we perform. I strongly believe – and it is my experience – that, when you perform in places that complement the music in whatever way, that you create a good synergy. And that makes a basis for a stronger experience, both for the audience and us on stage. Playing at the Acropolis or Red Rocks, or some of the other Roman amphitheatres we’re playing in... I don't know. Every place is different; every time in front of an audience is different and they all have their own powerful personality in very different ways. I can't pick a favourite but, when you play in places like the Acropolis, I would say it's a very demanding place to play because the place itself has such a strong feeling and a strong personality that it can almost steal your focus in a way that it takes over, the experience of actually being there. So it demands a lot of disciplined mind. 

Wardruna continue touring the UK and Ireland this month before returning to tour Norway in April and May with a few extra European dates in the summer. The album Birna is out now, as well as the DVD/Blu-ray Live at the Acropolis.

Good Habits, Richard Trethewey and the Rheingans Sisters – three recent releases to help us recharge our batteries, harvest our plums and synchronise our swimming

I’ve been following closely the musical trajectory of Pete and Bonnie, aka Good Habits, since their first album in 2020. Since then, I’ve enjoyed watching them play live several times (at Shrewsbury Folk Festival and Purbeck Valley Folk Festival) and, this year, I witnessed the blending together of Good Habits with international duo The Trouble Notes to form a new quartet calling themselves Just Like Clay. 

Good Habits continues to operate as an entity in its own right and Quarter-Life is their third album, (released with support from the brilliant Help Musicians UK and the Alan Surtees Trust.) The album features five collaborations with other artists. There’s a breathtaking cover of The Who’s Baba O’Riley (featuring Lunatraktors) but, for me, my favourite track is Sunday, a Bonnie composition that fuses Bonnie’s voice and cello perfectly with the banjo and voice of Kate Griffin (of Mishra fame.) This languorous gem of a song reminds us of the importance of recharging our batteries. 

Among the Celtic traditions, the folk music of Cornwall is a little under-represented compared with Irish and Scottish folk. One distinctive Cornish voice is Richard Trethewey who, earlier this year, released a beautiful album called Two Halves, (the title coming from the idea that it would be released on vinyl with a ‘side one’ and a ‘side two,’ each with slightly different moods.) 

The musicianship and instrumentation on Two Halves is phenomenal. Richard (a graduate of Newcastle’s folk music degree course) sings and plays fiddles and a cittern on this, his second solo release, but the musical landscape is further enriched by beautiful playing by guest musicians on cello, oboe, harp and flute ...and there’s even a brass band. The stand-out track for me is Bringing the Harvest Home – an unlikely homage to the harvesting of plums along the banks of the River Fal. It’s a lovely blend of melancholy and celebration. 

Anna and Rowan Rheingans – The Rheingans Sisters – have produced a startlingly experimental new album. Start Close In challenges the listener with its extended drones and irregular electronic beats. It took me a few play-throughs before I could really enjoy the immersive, layered playfulness of this record but now it’s becoming a bit of a favourite. 

Many of the tracks are tricksy and full of surprises. Un Voltigeur, sung in French with a banjo accompaniment, begins by recalling those other musical sisters the McGarrigles but, when saxophonist Daniel Thorne joins in, there are shades of Jan Garbarek and then a subtle electric guitar makes an unexpected appearance. Over and Over Again is minimalist and mesmerising, with its repetitive fiddle and Justin Adams-style electric guitar while its lyrics literally repeat “Over and over again.” 

The meaning of Rowan’s song Drink Up, is ambiguous, ambivalent: “Scroll down/Everyone’s craving time/Everyone’s holding their place on the line/Everyone’s job is a compromise/Swim, everyone synchronise/Strike, everything stops and starts...” It seems to sum up an effort to find joy in the mess we’re in, which isn't a bad idea at all. 

Den Miller and Gabriel Moreno - two singer-songwriters that stand out from the crowd

Den Miller's album
'Join All The Dots'

This summer, for the third year in a row, I’ll be attending the Purbeck Valley Folk Festival in Dorset. The line-up includes a lot of great acts – Senegalese kora virtuoso Seckou Keita, Quebec folk powerhouse Le Vent du Nord and exquisite folk Americana duo Hannah Saunders & Ben Savage – not to mention another of my favourite duos Good Habits (who’ll also be collaborating with the trio The Trouble Notes in the guise of Good Trouble!)

But I’m particularly excited about the return to Purbeck of two of my favourite singer-songwriters, Den Miller and Gabriel Moreno.

I first saw Den Miller on the Purbeck Rising stage two years ago and was struck by his humour, his songwriting skill and the fact he performed live, not only with guitar and piano but also with the much-underrated autoharp. Den is from Keighley in Yorkshire and there’s something in his North of England intonation that reminds me of the rather unfashionable songsmith Gilbert O’Sullivan. I’m very fond of unfashionable singer-songwriters and Den’s style has similarities with other artists from the 1970s and early 1980s, artists like Duncan Browne, Clifford T Ward and Dan Fogelberg.

Den Miller

Den is about to release a much-anticipated new album – much-anticipated because its predecessor, 2021’s Join All the Dots, is an absolute gem. For me, the standout track is It Matters If It Matters to You. It could be bracketed with The Roches’ song, Keep On Doing What You Do/Jerks On The Loose, in that it seems to me to be a hymn to taking joy in persevering at one’s art,  with its rousing chorus: “It matters if it matters to you / Don’t expect anyone to care the way you do / cos nothing really matters like it matters when it matters to you / you know all the things you’ve been through / You’ve joined all the dots to get where you’ve got to / And nothing really matters like it matters when it matters to you...”

Opening track Too Many Choices is typical of Den’s skill at making political points with great humour, not to mention his ability to cram as many words as possible into a verse. One of the verses comments on the current plethora of singer-songwriters: “Once upon a time your tribe sang songs, a couple of dozen that everybody knew / Each one special enough to hand on, as each generation came through / and now every dumb singer-songwriter comes to add to the millions already around / and you cling to the hope as you listen that it may just be the one that’s saying something new and profound...” 

Den’s forthcoming album, out this autumn, is called Bless the Rains, many of the songs inspired by the time he’s spent in Kenya. I look forward to hearing the new songs and to seeing Den live at Purbeck once again.

Gabriel Moreno

Gabriel Moreno is another artist I’ve championed on this blog. I first discovered Gabriel’s music through his 2022 album The Year of the Rat. I then had the pleasure of seeing him live at Purbeck (both as part of a ‘songwriters’ circle’ and performing with his band The Quivering Poets.) It’s wonderful that he’ll be back at Purbeck this year and, amazingly, since I last saw him live, Gabriel has not only released another outstanding album, Wound in the Night, but he’s also published his twelfth collection of poetry, Heart Mortally Wounded By Six Strings. Gabriel is a Gibraltarian singer-songwriter and poet, currently based in London. He's often compared with Leonard Cohen. This is partly because there aren’t that many singer-songwriters who are also respected published poets but, stylistically too, there are similarities both musically and lyrically. Gabriel plays a nylon-stringed guitar and his arrangements often use a simple piano and bass accompaniment, sometimes with female backing vocals. The title track of Wound in the Night is a deep, dark waltz which could be a cousin to Cohen’s Take This Waltz.

While comparisons with Cohen are natural, Gabriel has also been compared (in a sometimes-snooty way) to Peter Sarstedt. Again, as a fan of unfashionable singer-songwriters, I would suggest there is definitely something about the timbre of Gabriel’s voice which sounds like Peter Sarstedt – but there’s more to it than that. Sarstedt was far more than a 'poptastic' one-hit wonder; he had a talent for striking, poetic lyrics and song titles. For example, in his 1968 song, I Am a Cathedral, Sarstedt muses: “I am balanced well, you see / I am a Cathedral locked in stain glass windows / I am a Cathedral dimly lit...” Sarstedt was also a distinctively pan-European singer-songwriter, singing about boulevards and St Moritz and Don Quixote; he was an internationalist, not just an English songwriter.

Gabriel Moreno's album
'Wound In The Night'

It’s fascinating to listen to the songs on Gabriel's Wound in the Night and to read the poems in Heart Mortally Wounded By Six Strings – there’s a definite continuity between the two works. A recurring theme is the tension between making art and needing to make a living. In Gabriel’s song Suzanne Valadon the songwriter seeks counsel and inspiration from the ghost of the dead painter but ends up, it seems, being rebuked by her: “She says I’m a fool, a thief and a mule for I’m stuck to the stool of making a buck – if it’s not in your heart then don’t stand in the light...” Presumably, if you stand in the light singing something that’s not in your heart then, to paraphrase Den Miller,  you’re just one of those dumb singer-songwriters with nothing new or profound to say.

Likewise, in his extended poem Six Strings, Gabriel underlines the need for poetry and songwriting to be authentic, heartfelt: “Strum. Strum. Strum. / The blue guitar weeps / ‘coz you love cliches. / A mystic bird plummets / every time you strum / with a sterile limb.” 

Gabriel's poetry collection
'Heart Mortally Wounded
By Six Strings'

Birds – mystic or otherwise – feature heavily. One of the songs on the album is Origami Bird – “The origami bird, wrapped up in the night, glides in crazy patterns of light...” In Gabriel's poem The Sparrow, the bird seems to represent an idea that the poet can either let go of or try to capture: “I am a fool for freeing the sparrow./ More of a fool for keeping it bagged. / Just because you like how it glides / does not mean it belongs to you.”

Both Gabriel and Den are skilled practitioners of words and music. They often express profound, funny, important things about the position of the artist in a world of inequality and materialism where poetry and music can help us (to paraphrase another of Gabriel’s songs)  to open the “shutters on our eyes.”

Den Miller’s Join All the Dots was released in 2021. His new album Bless the Rains will be launched in September 2024. Gabriel Moreno’s Wound in the Night was released in 2023 and Heart Mortally Wounded by Six Strings was published in 2023 by Patuka Press.