paulanderson

Reviews

Paul Anderson - Iona (Folknotes) 

Anyone who has listened to the Scottish master fiddlers of our time is familiar with Paul Anderson and his fiddle sound and style: rich, robust and yet tender and ”singing”.
Anderson and Duncan Chisholm are not far removed from each other in this respect, so perhaps it’s no wonder both men have recently – very recently in Chisholm’s case – released an album inspired by an iconic Scottish or Celtic landmark.
But that’s where the resemblance ends. Whereas Chisholm’s Black Cuillin (an album I will discuss shortly) is an epic, genre-busting band collaboration in aural CinemaScope, Anderson’s Iona is a beautiful, almost spiritual, chain of mostly quite brief and low-key musical moments, with poetry written and recited by Francy Devine, appearing between tunes a few times.
The cast of musicians appearing on the album is impressive but, in truth, this is very much Mr. Anderson’s work: his fiddle and presence create this music and its spirit. There are a few pieces for solo fiddle only, and a few more for fiddle and piano.
So it’s very intimate and small scale, and that is just perfect for the theme. I have never been to Iona – yet! – but I’d imagine this music reflects not only the peace and spirituality of the place, but also the human lives lived there throughout centuries. Iona is a holy place but also a place where human history, sometimes cruel, has been written. I feel this music reflects both sides of that unique location.
Paul Anderson composed the music for Iona for an art project about the life and legacy of a certain Colm Cille, who later history knows better as St. Columba. I presume this context may have immersed the artist in the actual history of the saint and the Abbey, at least the music here feels… internalized, for want of a better word, as if the story of Iona is expressed, through Paul Anderson’s mastery and persona, in music. It is truly precious.
A couple of years ago, I called Lauren MacColl’s masterful solo fiddle album Landskein ”Highland Zen”. As Iona is a Christian place, I’m not sure if it would be correct to use that term again, but perhaps the people who dedicate their lives in monasteries understand and respect each other across cultures. And if Zen means being totally aware, present, wihout illusions and selfless without effort, then Paul Anderson’s music on Iona is just that.
Music for your ears and your soul, whatever your faith. Bless you, Mr. Anderson.
 

Beauties of the North - Paul Anderson 

(Time Past and Time Passing) 

If for you the fiddle is a lively dance Folk instrument played at speed to get feet moving then prepare to be confounded and compelled by Paul Anderson’s BEAUTIES OF THE NORTH. Recorded over thirteen years in a range of acoustically rich spaces, this is a collection of slow laments and airs from Scotland’s tradition. Not, Paul is quick to point out, a definitive collection of the finest, but some of the ones he enjoys playing.
It takes a brave musician to play the fiddle solo, with every nuance out in the open and master musician that Paul is, he rises perfectly on the occasion. The long resonant notes on tunes like ‘Lament For Sir Harry Niven Lumsden of Auchendoir’ or ‘Fyvie Castle’ evoke a sense of space and distance, perfectly fitting the Beauties of the title. There is a savage beauty that describes the light and dark spanning valleys and peaks. Nature’s Celtic chiaroscuro capped with smoky clouds. A few tracks feature George Donald’s falling water drops Steinway piano, or Tony McManus’ beautiful guitar while Paul soars over the top. This is soundtrack music, romantically descriptive and expansive notes summon moods and pictures as surely as Ralph Vaughan Willam’s ascending lark violin motif from classical music, or Sarah-Jane Summers’ Scottish Nordic fiddle playing. Tracks like the romantic ‘Tap O Noth’ are stirring like tentative steps on a Highland path rather than the frenetic pulsing of folk dance this is cerebrally warming beautiful music.
With such a long gestation and recording time, change is inevitable and the passing is noted in the sleeve text of pianist George Donald and Alan Spencer instrumental in the recording of this album. Final word is Paul’s “this is without a doubt the finest recording of my own playing I’ve heard and comes closest to capturing what I sound like live.”
Marc Higgins 4 Stars ****

PAUL ANDERSON - Land Of The Standing Stones
Fingal Records FINCD505
Inspired by his passion for the landscape, history and culture of his rural homeland in Aberdeenshire, famous for its standing stones, this recording presents over 50 original pieces by one of Scotland’s most celebrated composers and fiddlers.
Encompassing jigs, reels, strathspeys and marches with slow airs, ballads, laments and a pibroch, it culminates, appropriately, in Sunset Song, a suite of the main musical themes from his contribution to the Aberdeen Performing Arts’ 2008 production of Scottish author Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s 1932 novel about the landscape, idioms and people of North East Scotland.
Centred always on Paul’s fiddle, modest accompaniment from cittern, guitars, bass, keyboards and percussion adds pleasing variety, texture and atmosphere. Shona Donaldson sings on one piece and actor Kevin McKidd vocalises a heartfelt account of the clannish mayhem in the Earldom of Mar in the late 16th century.
The music draws on and conveys the genius loci, its history and characters, especially palpably and movingly on the slow airs. The exquisite control and pacing of The Beauty Of Cromar Before Me has a shimmery and lambent quality redolent of a genial summer’s evening and the suitably soaring sensibility of Farewell To St. Kilda is equally sublime.
Classical precision and awesome technique abound yet not at the expense of character and contemporary styling – majesty with melancholy in a tribute to the ‘real’ King Macbeth, jagged edginess for the uneasy feel of the coven at Craiglash in Glassel. This is a truly masterful exhibition of fiddle composition and playing.
www.paulandersonscottishfiddler.com
Kevin T. Ward