HAZEL STEPS THROUGH A WEATHERED HOME

Jumping in to review a recording by an artist who has been around for a quarter century presents a few dilemmas. Does one begin...at the beginning, as seems logical enough, and mark the progression of the artist over time, pick a "representative" album, pick the opus that marks a shift in style, or choose a favourite? Like all dilemmas, the answer is "it depends", and "I did what I felt like doing". So for these unsatisfactory and illogical reasons, I've chosen the 4th release by B'eirth's neo folk project IN GOWAN RING (IGR).

One frustrating aspect to IGR is that, while B'eirth has built his own instruments and plays many, the album credits don't tend to list them, meaning that he played whatever isn't credited to guest artists, and presumably built some of those, but as a non musician I am not clear on which those are. His voice is a pleasant mix of DONOVAN and NICK DRAKE and, while the earlier albums positioned the vocals behind expansive droning arrangements, on "Hazel Steps..." he appears to have made a conscious decision to communicate more through relatively conventional song structures. These tend to be very sedate, medieval sounding tunes with little variety in tempo, and limited percussion.

Only one track is instrumental, that being a reprise of the opening number "Orb Weavers" that ends the album. Both include an exquisite mournful ambient trombone accompaniment. Of the remaining songs, "Hazel Steps" is perhaps the most compelling, with a hypnotic figure on an ancient plucked instrument and mysteriously overlapped vocals, over bodhran. "Morning's Waking Dream" is an eerie delight, its fascinating lyrics and backing choral effects complemented by a solo possibly on recorder. While IGR has been compared to quite a few folk and prog folk artists, I think those who enjoy that forest vibe of HEXVESSEL or early WHITE WILLOW might be quite at home here.

Shortly after "Hazel Steps...", B'eirth seeded another project, BIRCH BOOK, that explores simpler folk themes, seemingly inspired by this shift towards communicating his vision as a songwriter. Still, for prog folk fans who want to start in the middle, you are welcome to step in here.