Strangeness & Charm, Music For The Book Of Deer. Album Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Religion in any form has long inspired the artist to create a passionate response, especially if it is the form of searching for an answer themselves or being overwhelmed by an artifact or a vestige of humanity’s adherence to scripture in the days when such historical objects held a deep spiritual belief in the soul and the mind.

You don’t have to be religious to appreciate beauty, to see the humanity in creation and the vision to which the divine appears to all who wish to understand how we fit into the universe at large, that for some, the gift of symbolism is tied to feeling part of something unexplainable, something tangible in the heart.

Whilst arguably more people in Britain will know of The Book of Kells, The Book of Deeris just as important artefact of literature, no matter your belief system, and it is to that book that Strangeness & Charm’s Richard Ingham has been inspired to capture the imagery and create a sound that is uplifting, demanding and insightful as any piece of writing can be.

What appears on the album is not just merely tracks or instrumentals designed to appeal, they are moments of time exposed to the elements and to the listener, they are examinations into the art of the reel and the plainsong, they are a symbol of the way we can be inspired enough by art to create art, that the symbolism of Music for the Book of Deer is in itself an introduction to time as perceived through human eyes and history.

With dramatic stimulation being the overwhelming feature of the album, and which includes such talent the band of Richard Ingham, Maarten Verbraeken, Fraser Burke, Kenny Irons, Andy James all combining to bring the extraordinary 10th Century portable Gospel book, The Book of Deer sees the fusion of traditional and medieval at perhaps its finest presentation, and with segments that include Cathal’s Banquet, This Splendid Little Book, Charlie’s Rant, A Prayer for the Soul of the Wretch Who Wrote It, Dancing In The Margin and the opening instrumental prose of The Light Of Columbia, Strangeness & Charm bring the past to life, they resurrect a belief and one with their own stamp of creation embedded into the art.

Music for the Book of Deer is a bold and dramatic musical arrangement, which even if religion is not your greatest concern, it can certainly give you an appreciation for an artform that has persisted through time.

Ian D. Hall