Ghost owls and sleeping spirals - a selection of albums from 2021

While last year provided extreme challenges for live music it also saw an outpouring of outstanding recordings. Many artists switched their energies into recording projects as tours and festivals were cancelled or postponed. So, here’s a selection of 2021 releases that are worth discovering - or revisiting...

Wardruna's stirring fifth album, Kvitravn, sounded like it could have been the dramatic soundtrack to a Viking movie - and with good reason; the Norwegian band's founder member, singer and composer Einar Selvik contributed music to the TV series Vikings.

Wardruna use rather esoteric instruments including the taglharpa, kravik-lyr and goat horn, along with occasional sound effects like thunder and wolves howling, in this collection of songs about white ravens, stags and spirit-weavers. This might all sound contrived but Wardruna perform with such conviction the effect is undeniably compelling.

Selvik has a background in black metal - he was previously the drummer in Gorgoroth - and insistent drums and potent vocals feature here, evidence that dark, pagan folk might, after all, be the more thoughtful cousin of satanic black metal.

Wardruna describe the album as "a visual soundscape" and, on tracks like 'Fylgjutal' and 'Vindavlarljod', it's easy to imagine raiders setting sail across the North Sea in longships. If you're facing a job interview or some other challenge Kvitravn could be just the thing to put you in an invincible frame of mind.

Fans of Wardruna will be pleased to hear the 2016 album by Ivar Bjørnson & Einar Selvik Skuggsjá has just been reissued – and Warduna are embarking on a mammoth world tour starting in March.

In a very different style, another band who enjoy using esoteric instruments are Agent Starling, who have made the hurdy-gurdy cool (again.) I wrote about this duo’s debut album European Howl (not to mention their seasonal Northern Lights Trilogy EP) in a previous blog post, so I won’t repeat myself. However, I would count European Howl among the most original albums of 2021 and I am thrilled to learn that Agent Starling are next month releasing a follow-up full-length album - Constellation of Birds. I'll be reviewing that soon here on the blog. 

2021 also saw the release of Ghost Owl, which came about after wildlife conservationist and filmmaker/photographer Simon Hurwitz asked Brooks Williams to compose some music to accompany some short films. Williams (born in Georgia, USA but now resident in Cambridge, UK) is a long-serving purveyor of rootsy, full-blooded acoustic guitar. With touring on hold, he teamed up with violinist Aaron Catlow and the duo found themselves with an album’s worth of owl-inspired tunes.

These ten instrumentals evoke images of the majestic creature with the heart-shaped face. The marriage of guitar and violin recalls the style of Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick and, occasionally, of Django Reinhardt and Stéphane Grappelli.

The title track and ‘Rene’s Garden’ are sinuous and atmospheric, the ethereal violin on ‘Tipper’s Field’ is suitably owlish while ‘First Dusk’ is an old-time waltz. With the bonus of Hurwitz’s wonderful owl photography illustrating the CD, Ghost Owl is a delight.  

While Warduna’s Einar Selvik loves his taglharpa, Andy Aquarius prefers his harps to be of the Celtic variety. If you’re thinking Andy Aquarius can’t be his real name, you’d be right. Andy Ozbolt is a singer and multi-instrumentalist with German and Croatian roots, currently based in Berlin. His previous musical output has been accessible, dreamy pop, à la Tame Impala. But his 2021 album Chapel dispenses with synths and trippy drum patterns and features little more than his self-built Celtic harp and vocals.

The opening title track sets the tone with three minutes of solo harp before Aquarius’s vocal begins, soon joined by Enya-like backing vocals provided by Maja Presnell. Aquarius’s singing style reminds me of fellow German multi-instrumentalist Nils Kercher, and the overall effect is similar to Kercher’s earlier albums – gentle and meditative.

Although there are only six tracks most are over six minutes, allowing plenty of time for the listener to get lost in the unhurried flow of the music. At times, it could almost be the kind of new age music used as an accompaniment to yoga, but there is enough melodic and rhythmic interest to make Chapel more than mere background listening.    

One of the most surprising collaborations of 2021 was Sleeping Spirals which saw singer, accordionist and dancer Hannah James team up with French cellist Toby Kuhn. This is a exquisitely-produced album, both musically and in terms of the cover design – the CD is a thing of beauty. The combination of James’ voice and Kuhn’s often highly-experimental cello creates an atmosphere like a melancholic, brooding European folk tale, unnerving but compelling. 

Not many artists can boast twenty-three studio albums to their name but Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph achieved this last year with the release of 1960 – an album that takes its title from the year of his birth. The eleven tracks on 1960 form an extended reflection on reaching the age of sixty and all that entails. The opening song ‘Born Too Late’ laments the fact that Joseph missed out on being in Laurel Canyon in 1971, imagining what that would have been like, and considers “How long does it take for a man to know himself?” A pleasant surprise is that the track ‘House’ features, rather wonderfully, the singer-songwriter Janis Ian on piano and vocals.

Finally, if I had to name my favourite release of 2021 it would have to be global folk collective Mishra’s album Reclaim. Recorded ‘live-in-the-room’ in a farmhouse in Gloucestershire, Reclaim has immense freshness and positivity, a conscious attempt to reclaim the joy that music can give us when so much of our freedom has been restricted. Fusing British and American folk music with Indian classical music, Mishra have a deftness and a wonderful lightness of touch. The blending of Ford Collier’s whistles with Kate Griffin’s vocals and banjo and John Ball’s tabla accompaniment is unique and irresistible, as is Ball’s santoor playing on ‘This is the Sound.’ I am tempted to go off and live in a parallel universe where Reclaim’s bouncy, opening track ‘The Truth’ would be number one in the charts for a very long time. If this were the case, all would be well! But, if not, why not allow yourself to be transported in your imagination by trying some of the albums mentioned here.

The story is the telling - This is the Kit, plus by Nuala Honan (at The Castle & Falcon, Birmingham - 16 November 2021) and Alaw (at Bitterley Village Hall - 3 December 2021.)

In a year in which live music was touch and go, it was great to be able to attend two fantastic gigs towards the end of 2021. In November, I went to the Castle and Falcon in Birmingham to see This Is the Kit. It was a pleasure to see Kate Stables and her band play in a fairly intimate venue and the evening was made all the more special by the fact that I was joined by my nephew Tom (a Birmingham resident and, like his uncle, a fan of slightly quirky music.)

This Is the Kit were supported by Bristol-based Australian Nuala Honan and her band. I was so taken with Nuala’s infectious enthusiasm that, in the interval, I made a beeline to her merch table, had a pleasant chat with Nuala herself and bought her CD Doubt & Reckoning. The album is perfect music for driving and has been in my car’s CD player ever since. The only disappointment is that the album doesn’t include Nuala’s latest single I’m Alright which is charming and delightfully hooky. If you haven’t heard it yet, seek it out and play it on repeat a few times!

This is The Kit were very entertaining with Kate frequently spending time carefully tuning one instrument before realising she was supposed to be playing a different one, but she had a lovely rapport with the audience and the songs were as delicate and moving as they could be. Keep Going was a highlight, a song which could almost be an anthem for the pandemic age:

“The power in the naming / The story is the telling / Potential in the waiting / Movement is deciding / Forward is the doing / Keep going...”

And for anyone who has lost a loved one in recent times, the tense-shifting refrain of Keep Going took on a new power:

“This love has been ours / This love is ours / This love is still ours...”

Then, at the start of December, I headed over the hills (literally) to South Shropshire where, not far from Ludlow, the village of Bitterley nestles. Bitterley is one of a number of villages in Shropshire and Worcestershire - Alveley, Abberley, Dunley, Astley, Shrawley – that sound like adverbs. It’s tempting to suppose Bitterley got its name because, positioned on the western slopes of Titterstone Clee Hill, it must get bitterly cold in the winter.

Bitterley Village Hall was the venue for an Arts Alive event. Arts Alive promote professional arts and film events in partnership with local people, bringing high quality and affordable entertainment within easy travelling distance of people in Shropshire and Herefordshire. And so it was that I had the privilege of seeing a performance by Alaw, a superb folk trio from Wales. Guitarist Dylan Fowler and fiddler Oli Wilson-Dickson have been playing together for years and are now joined by the exceptional voice of Nia Lynn, who also provides a harmonium accompaniment. Oli is an immensely engaging front-man and the band took the audience on a journey through new and traditional Welsh folk tunes that demonstrate the Welsh tradition is unfairly neglected, compared with Scottish and Irish folk music.

So, from This is the Kit and Nuala Honan in heart of the big city to Alaw, playing over the hills and far away, live music is still out there to be had - and long may it continue. The story is the telling. Keep going.