English folk singer Sam Lee takes a reconstructionist approach on ancient British folk songs on his band’s second album, The Fade in Time.
Recorded at Imogen Heap’s studio outside of London, The Fade in Time is no walk in the meadow.
Inspired by his mentor, Stanley Robertson, from British collective The Travellers (more on them later), Lee and his band have taken a non-traditional interpretation to British folk music. They mix archival recordings and unusual instruments to give an updated, eerie vision of how the songs sounded in centuries past.
The Fade in Time pulls the trick of playing bygone songs to sound contemporary and finds itself in a world music setting.
The Travellers are a community of British musicians who wander the island collecting songs and stories. They act as folklorists and their traditions stretch back centuries, and their lifestyle is akin to British gypsies with whom they share some material.
So basically Lee has joined this tradition and added modern textures with his band and producers (Jamie Orchard-Lisle and Arthur Jeffes).
It’s refreshing and disconcerting that Lee and friends have no reliance on stock folk instruments. There are no songs featuring banjos, mandolins or other go-to axes. They take a futuristic reading of the songs that recalls Van Morrison, beatnik be-bop and bardic poetry.
Led Zeppelin fans take note – it’s an update of the Gallows Pole vibe. The sounds are jarring rather than pastoral with the band’s exotic instruments rumbling and braying beneath Lee’s crooned vocal (Johnny o’ the Brine, Blackbird, Lord Gregory).
The archival approach is smart and the sense of creepiness lifts when Lee starts singing (Bonnie Bunch of Roses). The opposite works on a different level – as the band adds unusual arrangements, Lee taps into his perception of the song’s origin (Over Yonder’s Hill). Jonah Brody’s use of koto on Moorlough Maggie adds to the swirl as Lee drones and modulates through the ancient ballad.
This album isn’t a typical blast from the past, not even close. It travels on information and experimentation and presents a picture of continuity.
– Dean Gordon-Smith is a Vernon-based musician who reviews new music releases in his column, Street Sounds, every Friday.
