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SARAH-JANE SUMMERS & JUHANI SILVOLA - The Smoky Smirr O' Rain 

SARAH-JANE SUMMERS & JUHANI SILVOLA - The Smoky Smirr O' Rain 
8th Nerve Audio 8NERVE008  

Fiddle and guitar virtuosi - that doesn't seem too strong a term for this couple who are based in Norway but celebrated across Europe and beyond. Like many Scottish fiddlers, Sarah-Jane's immersion in the highland music tradition was combined with a classical training, giving her arguably the best of both worlds. Juhani is a highly respected jazz guitarist with a deep awareness of his native Finnish tradition, and extends his fingers to the piano on this recording. Like the duo's two previous albums, The Smoky Smirr O' Rain is just two musicians doing what they do live, no guests, no double-tracking; this is what you would get on stage, and it's lovely.

I chose that word carefully. Not as punchy as their previous Widdershins release, this album has a calmness, a serenity almost, which picks you up and carries you along with complete confidence. There's no shortage of excitement - The Herring Reel from PEI is a rollicking dance, Summers' Borrowed Days has all the growl and grit of a good troll tune, and the set of 18th-century Finnish-Swedish polskas fairly bounces along. Older tunes are plentiful here: Summers & Silvola open with three tracks of music from the 1784 Patrick MacDonald collection, pieces which may be even more ancient. These Gaelic melodies are given a sympathetic modern arrangement, nothing startling, but really bringing out the character of each tune.

Juhani's composition, Across The Firmament, is quite different, almost cinematic, striking soundscapes from fiddle harmonics and delicate fingerpicked guitar. The title track is as wispy and elemental as its name suggests, a light lyrical jig. A couple more ancient Scottish melodies and Sarah-Jane's Finnish Kummitädin Valssi bring us to the final cheery highland air, This Depression On My Soul - we Scots have always known how to enjoy ourselves, and that seems to have produced beautiful tunes! Great music, grand arrangements and gorgeous playing make The Smoky Smirr O' Rain another terrific album from this prodigious pair of musicians.

www.sarahjanejuhani.com

Alex Monaghan

 

This review appeared in Issue 138 of The Living Tradition magazine