Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

The call for independent Scotland may be raging around the U.K. press during this period of 2014 but for one man calling the Isle of Lewis his home, independence has come very early as he prepares to release his new album Dalma. For Willie Campbell, once of Scottish Indie act Astrid and now enjoying life as part of The Open Day Rotation, the chance to show the Gaelic heart that beats gently but fiercely proud within him to an audience must be seen as a brave and valiant step.

Dalma is as Gaelic as it comes, not just the sound of the music being filtered like spring water from the old volcanic rocks and breathing life into all those that refresh themselves in its aquatic spray but in the vast majority of the album is sang in the natural tongue of the people north of the border. It is like finding yourself in the middle of the night with a solitary light glowing in the distance, the sound wafting across the moors lulling the animals into calmness and you being entranced completely by the unblemished beauty, Dalma is that beauty and utterly entrancing.

The problem some might find is not being able to understand what the words mean, for that you should take issue with yourself and not the artist, not everything in life requires subtitles, not everything needs a justifiable explanation to know that the music and words are combined so well that even to a non-native speaker it sounds like the heavens found another way in which to fill the soul with a little bit of brightness.

WIllie Campbell stands his ground and provides a voice in the darkness, the bearer of delight and safety and in tracks such as Grunnd Na Mara, Shlanaich Thu Mi, Rud As Fhearrn and the English speaking songs of Time Stood Still and Kerry Can You Hear Me, both Willie Campbell and his co-writer Calum Martin capture the moment and the time pleasingly well. Dalma could well be the soundtrack to a new generation’s belief.

Ian D. Hall