Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We listen to the multitude who sing off the same chorus sheet, we applaud and make a fuss over the group dynamic which ranges in degrees of finesse and performance because we feel that there is safety in numbers, that there is a sense of cause in the army containing baritones and sopranos, an expression of grief and joy that is harnessed by the collective over the passion of the one.

It may be true, there is always an argument in which to lay down the law of one’s own belief when it is sung in your own personal style, but sometimes we have to give space to the Beauties of the North, to the sounds of the compass as it passes through other degrees of airs and laments and collections that have passed through their own mists and into legend. The group collective may sing hardy for such passing spirits but the sound of one person catching the air though the voice of their chosen instrument that is pride and joy of one who exemplifies the spirit as an entity all of its own.

Paul Anderson brings the tradition of the Scottish fiddle to the forefront of musicianship as he completes a 13-year endeavour to bring the Airs and Laments of Scotland to the public’s attention in Beauties of the North. It is a pursuit, a noble and celebratory quest in which the musician gives more than his all to his country’s artistic craft, he records a timeless selection which stops time, which moulds itself to the very fabric of the day.

With several of his own compositions weaved through the album and with musical contributions by Terry McManus, Dave Swinton and the late George Donald, the album is not intended to be a definitive version of the sounds of Scotland, but instead is a joyous, jubilant procession through the mind, and one that sparks the imagination as the thought of companionship and solitude mingle together by the fireside of perspective.

Across recordings such as Macpherson’s Rant, The Stone of Destiny, Farewell To Whisky, Farewell To St. Kilda, Lament For King George V, Griegs, Prince Charlie’s Last View of Scotland, Auld Robin Gray and Caledonia’s Wail For Neil Gow Her Favourite Minstrel, Paul Anderson conducts himself with polish, the sound is majestic, stately, full of mourning and joy, a combination of the imposing and the resplendent at arms all rolled into one force that takes on the idea that a single figure cannot capture the imagination in the face of a choir at arms.

A recording that towers, that is grand in stature but humble in its place in your collection, a beauty of the north indeed.

Ian D. Hall