Further adventures in Scottish, Swedish and Icelandic music

Tìm by Mairearad Green

Landscape painter and musician Mairearad Green is from the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The title of her album Tìm (pronounced ‘cheem’) is the Gaelic word for ‘time’ and it’s something of a meditation on the sense of being taken out of time by landscape, music and painting. I was expecting something more traditional – Mairearad plays small pipes and accordion as well as piano and, while there are some more traditional-sounding interludes like the instrumental ‘Camuscoillie’ and the title track, Mairearad’s songs are very contemporary, with a pleasing lo-fi pop sensibility, aided by producer Iain Hutchison’s subtle electric guitar and synths.

 ‘To the Ground’ has a slight Cocteau Twins feel and the whole album has a dreamy atmosphere. Tracks like ‘Old Dornie’ and ‘Knockan Crag’ are like musical landscape paintings and, indeed, the album was conceived as an integral part of one of Mairearad’s exhibitions at An Talla Solais art gallery in Ullapool.

Tìm is a beautiful and surprising collection that I’ve been listening to repeatedly. ‘Time and Tide’ – with its Beach House-like sound – deserves to be a Highland dream-folk hit.

Writing about the album’s theme, Mairearad observed, ‘The older I get the more I appreciate time and have a much clearer idea of how art and music never can be a waste of my time.’

Aster, Atlas by Sara Parkman

Swedish singer/composer Sara Parkman is another artist who chooses to place her faith in art and thereby find solace and restoration. Aster, Atlas is Sara’s fourth album and was, reportedly,  conceived after a period of exhaustion – though you might not guess judging by the outpouring of energy in her music.

Sara’s songs are sometimes meditative, sometimes epic in their arrangement and delivery. A recurring theme in Aster, Atlas is the idea of prayer and work – embodied in the Latin phrase ‘Ora et Labora’ (the phrase repeated with increasing urgency in the album’s closing track.) As Sara puts it, ‘I want the idea of prayer and work to be a source of comfort, hope and encouragement in the challenging times we live in. We must continue to work and believe in the common good.’ 

Many of the tracks on Aster, Atlas sound like a prayer – or an invocation. ‘Salomos vishet’ builds – Gorecki-like – from almost spoken word, through a kind of sprechgesang, to an insistent crescendo where Sara is joined by the choir, seeming  to spit out the words in a torrent reminiscent of Jacques Brel at his most vitriolic. Then, suddenly, the chorus melts away to end with an angelic coda.

Quieter moments of Aster, Atlas remind me of Enya and of the Norwegian folk band Aevestaden but there are great, dramatic, swelling moments with echoes of the Bulgarian choir of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares. Unafraid to blend folk, rock and electronica, with a fiercely experimental musicality, Sara is perhaps a kindred spirit of those other uncompromising innovators Bjork and Kate Bush.

Muna by Lilja

If you’ll allow a bit more geographical and musical wandering, having taken in Scottish dream-folk and mystical Swedish folktronica, let’s head west again for some Icelandic/Norwegian jazz fusion. Muna is the third album by Lilja (the project of exceptional jazz guitarist Oddrun Lilja.) It’s a very disorientating record because it’s so musically diverse.

Opening track ‘Stillhetsveldit’ is a blistering seven and a half minutes, blending Scandinavian folk and Middle Eastern influences with Oddrun’s sinuous, sometimes deliciously distorted electric guitar – hypnotic and elegant – and enjoying exploring all the possibilities of the piece. The band are terrific musicians (Jo Skaansar on bass, Helge Norbakken’s percussion, Bugge Wesseltoft’s keyboards) and I could have happily listened to a whole album of this one opening track.

‘Groruddalen’ is another compelling gritty groove, with a guitar and rhythm section that could be at times desert blues, at times Zamrock. So, it’s a bit of a mystery why Lilja chose to intersperse these captivatingly groovy tracks with others like ‘Slowly, Gently’ and ‘Beloved One’ which feature different vocalists, English lyrics and acoustic guitars. These quieter, folkier tracks are beautifully-played and sung but don’t seem to belong on the same album. I’m all for creating contrast but the difference between the gritty, jazzier, rockier tracks and the sweet, gentle, songs is extreme and, while the musicianship can be enjoyed and admired in both styles, I found it confusing when taken as a whole. For all that, it’s definitely worth checking out ‘Groruddalen’ and ‘Stillhetsveldit’and Oddrun's guitar-playing is phenomenal.

Tìm by Mairearad Green (Buie Records)

Aster, Atlas by Sara Parkman (Supertraditional)

Muna by Lilja (Jazzland Recordings)