Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
The migration patterns of birds have long held a fascination for ornithologists and for those who find the half yearly voyage of avian resettlement to be worthy of being an inspiration for any form of poetic or artistic visualisation. It is the call to nature, the reason beyond human made perceptions of Time, it is how the world is acknowledging the change in the weather, the seasons, the way the Earth moves through space; and whilst some may find it a small detail, it is however a finer degree of understanding and one that offers creation a way of expressing itself with a definition of purpose.
In Hirondelle, The Brothers Gillespie take flight and respond to inspiration in the company of Trio Mythos players Sophie Renshaw, Lucy Russell and Ruth Philips, and Tant Que Li Siam’s Damien Toumi, Marie-Madeline Martinet, and Mario Leccia, and in their huge collaboration the fusion of English Folk and French classical, the majestic swallow finds itself at the heart of the matter of this Neo-approach to instrumental presentation.
The tracks are bright, breezy, they offer the imagination the flight of fancy and the down to Earth truth that is required to think beyond the closed-minded cage we often find ourselves in when unknowingly we only think of birds, all animals and creatures, as an extension of the world rather than being the reason it exists within nature itself.
Across tracks such as the openers Golden One and Tina’s Song, and through the style and craft of the dynamic of Northumberland I and II and the finale I Drew My Ship, the collaboration is one of outstanding awareness and finesse, and should be appreciated as such.
One Swallow might not make a spring, but in Hirondelle’s debut self-titled release it certainly makes a listener’s year.
Hirondelle release their self-titled album on January 31st.
Ian D. Hall