The Unique Sound of PerKelt

PerKelt

Wagon and Horses, Digbeth, Birmingham

Tuesday 12 March

A friendly Victorian pub in Birmingham seemed a slightly incongruous setting for PerKelt, who are more often to be found at medieval festivals and midwinter fairs. The band has been peddling its unique brand of pagan speed folk since 2008 (and they've featured twice before on this blog.) Founder members Stepan Honc  (guitar, vocals) and Paya Lehane  (vocals, recorders, harp) - both from the Czech Republic - with their French drummer David Maurette have recently become a quartet thanks to the addition of Scottish fiddler Duncan Menzies. The latter's contribution underlines the joyful Celtic aspects of their music but there is still plenty of dark medievalism in PerKelt's sound. 

Supported by singer-guitarist Jay Fraser and bluegrass-inflected duo Copper Viper, this was the first date in a short tour by PerKelt prior to the release of a forthcoming album. We were treated to some intriguing new songs alongside more familiar PerKelt material: their distinctive take on songs from Shakespeare, their outstanding arrangement of the early-Renaissance 'Tourdion' and their stirring versions of Swedish folk ballad 'Herr Mannelig' and 13th century Occitan bourrée  'Ai Vist Lo Lop'.

Paya's voice and recorder-playing were as powerful and eerie as ever, but strangely there was no sign of her harp. Perhaps the band felt that this was superfluous given the combined strings of Stepan's guitar and Duncan's fiddle.

I suspect the good people of Birmingham were not quite sure what to make of PerKelt's unlikely tales of Swedish trolls, but how could anyone resist the sincerity, good humour, virtuosity and exuberance of these four extraordinary musicians?