Brìghde Chaimbeul
Two years ago, on Carry Them With Us, her collaboration with Canadian composer and saxophonist Colin Stetson,she took a leap into the unknown beyond folk, one that found an audience for the power of the drone, ended up in several year-end best-of lists, and saw her recording with adventurous popster Caroline Polachek, before taking off on tour on her own.
After performing alone on stages across the globe, she understands more of the ways to use her instrument and embrace its natural minimalism. With Sunwise she strides out with much greater experience and confidence Just how much is evident on the uncompromising opener, “Dùsgadh / Waking,” whose drones jump straight out of the speaker, almost making a listener catch their breath. From there, it’s into “A Chailleach,” another of her own compositions, a simple, gradually moving arpeggio that twists and turns before taking on the shape of a traditional waulking song, the deft mingling of worlds that’s one of her special gifts, heightened by a visit from Stetson and a rare appearance of her own, crystalline, lilting singing.
On Carry Them With Us, Chaimbeul found her voice. On Sunwise, she’s matured, ready and eager to explore the possibilities and nuances in her music. While most of the pieces here come out of the tradition, any line separating past and present is erased in her hands; everything sounds as fresh as today. She springs several beautiful surprises, like “Sguabag/The Sweeper,” a live recording with three other pipers, rich in texture as the musicians interact, always, inevitably, anchored by the drone that’s at the root of everything she does.
It’s an album filled with winter, she’s said, but it’s far from cold. There’s the invitation of the blazing hearth and the ceilidh, of community. Her own father pops up on “Duan,” bringing a Hogmanay rhyme from his own childhood on the island of South Uist, while her brother Eòsaph appears on the short closer, the wonderfully title “The Wine Is Rain & The Stones Are Cheese,” an homage to the longest night of the year. Following Carry Them With Us was always going to be difficult, in large part because it’s such a singular record. Yet Brìghde Chaimbeul has surpassed it on Sunwise, and done it by being completely true to herself. This is what’s inside her, her spirit, her soul, laid bare and on display. Art.
Further listening:
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