Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

There are models of music release which were once seen as innovative but have now become the role model in which everybody employs, such is the shrinking dominance of once proud record labels that the participation of the fan has become even more demanding, crucial to a band’s or artist’s success. It is a relationship in which the fan has a say, perhaps not on style or delivery, but in the process, sponsoring in effect the realm of fortune it costs these days in which to produce a record, a piece of art.

There is nothing wrong with this dynamic, anything that brings art closer to the people, to make it more immediate, to give it an extra meaning to the person listening, is to be welcomed, encouraged. It is a natural process of thought therefore to imagine a moment where the fan becomes more than a sponsor, but instead becomes a collaborator of sorts, the muse installing a reflection of the artist’s dream on the canvas, their own stories adding illumination and colour to the paint work and the crafting knife.

It is in this realm of co-operation, an alliance which sits on The In-Between which makes the husband and wife pair of Ashton Lane, Esther and Tim O’Connor, so remarkable, unusual at first glance buy a progression in which the modern day acknowledges as it asks for transparency, for a clearer view of how a song or any art can influence a person’s understanding of what they are being requested to understand.

The world of social media has a lot of detractors, but undoubtedly it can bring a seismic momentum to a new way of thinking, and for eleven fans of Ashton Lane, it brought perhaps a one-off chance to be the muse, the inspiration with their own tales of love, regret and the take on a historical figure, Ruth Ellis, and see them woven into bespoke songs which make up what is a remarkably insightful album.

The In-Between is a bold place, it stands out because the artists have listened and in songs such as People in the Valley, Marilyn Curls, I’ll Pray, Growing Up Together and Desert Sky, the model of teamwork is one fascinating to behold, fresh, wonderfully maverick but strangely sentimental, the proof that love really does work both ways. We are told to choose one way or another in life, that there is no place called The In-Between, Ashton Lane have kindly proved the world wrong.

Ian D. Hall