Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The small candle holders that flicker and move like a frustrated Siren caught in a winter draft and cast an almost loving shadow over the tablecloths offers the crowd that has assembled for Parr Jazz on Parr Street the chance to relish in the thought of what is to come as the fantastic Scandinavian Jazz/Folk band House Of Trees make their way to the heart of U.K. music, Liverpool.

As the three members of the band make their way to the stage, the flickering orange haze thrown by the small candles is joined by the big red warning sign above the heads of the audience that in days of old would have had the odd murmur of excited adulation cut completely. The sign may have said On Air but Djamila Skoglund, Rob Cowe and special violinist Sarah Anderson were on top form as they produced a scintillating and undeniably enthralling set which left the audience spell-bound and feeling on cloud nine.

There is something almost serene in hearing a voice that is just incredible being flanked by a guitar being played with the gentleness usually afforded a surgeon performing skilled surgery and the sound of a violin that floats through the air, over the tables and into the damp evening air with the grace of a kestrel. That is what the audience, a respectful and sincere crowd of people who listened with the attentiveness of an understanding aunt, were treated to. This was what Djamila Skogland offered, a voice that just played with the ears gently and took them on a journey to a place that rarely gets visited, to a bounty of bliss.

With tracks from their latest album, Where’s The Butcher, Where’s The Baker?, making up the vast majority of songs during the two sets, this was a night of passion, of incredible violin playing by Sarah Anderson and in which you end up cursing not having 24 hour public transport so you could listen all night in comfort.  Opening up with Crooked Tree the evening was given the kind of start you can only dream of. With songs such as David Has Fallen, The Opportunist, I’m The Clown and the beauty of Not That Kind Of Town making up the first half of the evening and Burn It Down, Held Together With Pins, the fantastic Imaginary Numbers and Mama all part of a superb final closing set, this was music to die for, an evening of sublime magnificence in which to wallow and wish you could live through again.

Music, in all its forms is meant to inspire and bring people who may be as vastly different as you can imagine together, it is fair to say that at Parr Jazz, House of Trees managed that perfectly. A great evening of Nordic Folk/Jazz which was the perfect remedy for the Post-Festive blues.

Ian D. Hall