Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Whilst we might love the big number, the album that is extravagant and wonderfully excessive, the type of recording that has been poured over by each member of the band, and given to shaking the popular press into spreading the gospel according to… we might love the sensationalism that goes along with the uproar, the gossip of perception and the need to be seen not being part of the crowd, what we actually should be doing as much as possible is listening to the Undercurrents, to the sound running underneath, the truth of free flowing feelings and the depth of nuance.
Pippa Reid-Foster connects those rapid waters on the surface and seeks intrigue for the soul in the undertow of the clearer streams that seems to be a slower, more elegant persuasion, and in her second solo album using the majesty of the harp as the voice, as the carrier of inspiration to certain tides, what is revealed is a sense of the transcendent, of the minimalist drive, and as Undercurrents floods the emotions, as the drifting thoughts surge as though a spring time flood breaks its banks but replenishes the land to offer a suitable harvest in time, so the performer showcases the course of music she has excelled within.
There is no escaping the evoking of heavenly thought, from the depths of the sea to the movement above, the harp and its player are as one, in unison with each other and the structure of recital is complete, awash with drama, subtly, the enactment of a whole world at play, and as tracks such as The Fading Light, Homeward Unbound, Mapped Out, the delicious Written In The Sky, and the pairing of State Of Mind I and II the personality of the music becomes unrestricted, they are as open to the elements as a river running the British countryside, and whilst the focus maybe on the crest of the wave, the listener soon understands the impact of what is stirring, living under the surface.
A wonderful collection of human thought that airs and pulls the listener to a place of wonder, the undercurrent of life being a more stirring place to explore than the excess of crested wave.
Pippa Reid-Foster releases Undercurrents on 6th September.
Ian D. Hall