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(alt) Folk, contemporary folk, London. Het luisteren meer dan waard, staat in huize Mac op repeat.

When a new album arrives from Ranagri, it’s as well not to approach it with too many preconceived notions. Over the years since their debut Fort of the Hare in 2014, some albums have been entirely their own compositions, some entirely traditional; Voices, their 2016 release, was a mix of the two. But, one thing you can be confident about, with their eclectic mix of instruments and boundless imagination, is that the music will be satisfyingly inventive and well worth your attention.

Given its title, at least the source of the ten songs on the new album is pinned down from the outset, though I might take issue with describing The Northern Lights of Old Aberdeen as traditional, but it has been around for a long time. A first listen reveals that, as you might expect, Ranagri have taken characteristically innovative approaches to the songs. The majority of work on the album had to take place under various levels of Covid restrictions, and further bumps in the road were added as the band went through a couple of personnel changes. The core of Ranagri has always been the songwriting, vocals, piano and guitar of Dónal Rodgers and the flutes and whistles of Eliza Marshall. Equally vital to the music has been the harp, and, most recently, that has come from Eleanor Dunsdon, who took over from Eleanor Turner during the course of the album’s production. For similar reasons, there are three percussionists credited. Joe Danks was still with the band at the start of recording. When he moved on, Evan Carson deputised before Jordan Murray joined the band on a more permanent basis, extending Ranagri’s instrumental repertoire by bringing in a hammered dulcimer as well as his percussion skills.

Tradition ii opens with The Wife of Usher’s Well, a song filled with ghostly apparitions and symbolism. While Dónal’s vocal tells the story to a steady rhythm from guitar and a simple drum beat, the arrangement behind adds supernatural touches. Wailing backing vocals, of course, but I’m especially fond of the sections where Eliza’s flute makes some very convincingly ghostly sounds. The band’s arrangement of Lowlands of Holland, which follows, turns attention to the wider mixture of sounds that Ranagri do so well. After a flute intro, the initial vocal is accompanied by guitar, flute and harp, before a gentle but deceptively intricate bodhrán beat, comes to the fore, Dónal’s voice now backed by two harmonising female voices, one of which is definitely Eliza. I need to come clean here, with two harpists on the credits, each also adding backing vocals; I can’t say which contributed to which track. But it hardly matters when the standard is uniformly so high. There follows a section with harp and flute alternating phrases over the bodhrán rhythm. Initially short and simple, gradually growing longer and more complex, eventually merging into a passage that, no matter how many times I’ve listened to it, leaves me with a beaming smile and a skip in my step.


The album’s progression from that point makes it very hard to ever lose that smile. Despite death and dying dominating many of the lyrics, arrangements are largely upbeat, acting as a most effective counterweight. It’s a tough ask for that to work with a song like The Unquiet Grave, and so, wisely, they’ve opted for the eerily atmospheric. And, with the flute, harp, plenty of cymbals and a scattering of doom-laden drumbeats, that’s readily achieved. A similarly sympathetic approach gives Lowlands Away an introduction dominated by harp and flute that overlays the entire song with the feel of a classical choral piece, Dónal’s breathy and at times whispered vocal telling another tale of separation and death.

The band acknowledges that the choice of songs included on the album represents a somewhat restricted subset of the traditional canon. But, for them, it was an almost inevitable response to the strange, unnerving times we lived through in 2020/21, the period when most work on the album was undertaken and, necessarily, done remotely. During pandemic times, they found themselves relating strongly to tales of loss and separation and the consequential impact on mental health. Devising arrangements and recording these songs was their response to the stresses of those times. We can all now benefit from their labours, a suite of songs readily teasing out emotional responses from the listener. But Ranagri never forget that they are also entertainers. These songs are packed with passages in which voices and instruments combine to astound the listener with some of the most attention-grabbing music I’ve heard in a long time.

Tracks:
01. The Wife Of Usher's Well 
02. Lowlands Of Holland 
03. The Northern Lights Of Old Aberdeen 
04. The Dark Eyed Sailor 
05. Follow Me Up To Carlow 
06. The Unquiet Grave 
07. Polly On The Shore 
08. Lowlands Away 
09. Courting Is A Pleasure 
10. Bríd Óg Ní Mháille 

Staat er compleet op, 10% pars mee gepost. Met zeer veel dank aan de originele poster. Laat af en toe eens weten wat je van het album vindt. Altijd leuk, de mening van anderen. Oh ja, MP3 doe ik niet aan.