Album Reviews: Dido | HMS Ginafore & King Creosote Alison Balsom | Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra | Arild Andersen | The Shee | Japan: Koto Classics | Japan: Geza Music from the Kabuki | Amadou & Miriam

Published on Thursday 13 November 2008 19:04

DIDO: SAFE TRIP HOME ** RCA, £12.99

IT HAS been five years since Dido's last album, her second gazillion seller, but has anyone noticed her absence? Maybe she has not actually been absent at all – her breathy omnipresence on radio, in malls, wherever, can be overlooked easily enough. Is that even Dido mewling from the speakers, or some other enervated songstress? Anyway, in the interim, Dido has reconnected with her love of music (it says here). Unfortunately, she has forgotten to communicate this through the medium of her third album which is another soothing/soporific (delete according to tolerance) roll of aural wallpaper about love, loss and a bunch of other stuff she sounds too drained to care about. So why should we?

HMS GINAFORE & KING CREOSOTE: LOVE + HATE > HATE ****

FENCE, 13.99

IT MIGHT have been more appropriate to bill this musical bout as HMS Ginafore vs King Creosote, because the former golden couple of the Fence Collective are together no more so, in the interests of emotional healing and petty bitching, they have each written and recorded six songs about the other party (theoretically anyway) which they present, turn about, for our general beguilement. The results are not quite banjos at dawn, more a (musically) complimentary collection of reliably gorgeous lo-fi melancholia, which marks the elusive HMS Ginafore's first recordings for Fence in five years. FIONA SHEPHERD

CLASSICAL

ALISON BALSOM: TRUMPET CONCERTOS ****

EMI CLASSICS, 12.99

THERE'S the lollipop element to this recording by blonde bombshell trumpeter Alison Balsom, and there's an equal amount of rarer repertoire. The familiar concertos are those of Hummel and Haydn, both of which benefit from Balsom's golden tone and athletic technique. Furthermore, she simultaneously directs the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie in performances that run smooth as silk, if slightly marred by the orchestra's heavy-footed tone in the Hummel. But there's a delightful display of heartwarming Baroque brilliance in Torelli's Trumpet Concerto in D, and sprightly charm in the slightly later E flat Concerto of Jan Krtitel Jiri Neruda.

In all of these, Balsom's playing is easy on the ear, and a pleasure to listen to.

ROYAL CONCERTGEBOUW ORCHESTRA – MAHLER: SYMPHONY NO 5 *****

RCO LIVE, 12.99

THE ripe trumpet fanfare at the start of this compelling Mahler Five signals the tone for the ensuing 70 minutes – there's even a final 30-second track dedicated entirely to "applause". The man in charge is no less than Mariss Jansons, who directs the Royal Concertgebouw in "live" performance. The results have to amount to something – think of the numerous recordings that already exist of this work – and indeed they do.

Jansons guides us through this tempestuous symphony with a firebrand will and infectious theatricality. The opening movement heaves with emotional turmoil as if caught in a whirlwind. Sharp incisions herald the brusque extremes of the "Sturmisch Bewegt"; the scherzo is skilfully paced to contrast its wistfulness with its sturdiness; the famous Adagietto floats like a luminous cloud; Jansons shapes the finale with magnificent authority and intellect; needless to say, the "applause" is a spontaneous outburst of elative cheering and foot-stamping. Those who value Jansons's characteristic brilliance will not be disappointed. KENNETH WALTON

JAZZ

ARILD ANDERSEN: LIVE AT BELLEVILLE *****

ECM RECORDS, 13.99

MY JAZZ album of the year. Norwegian bass maestro teams up with saxophonist Tommy Smith and Italian drummer Paolo Vinaccia in a trio that is brimming over with compelling ideas and creative invention. Other than an unusually abstract reading of Ellington's Prelude to a Kiss, the music is all composed by Andersen. The disc opens with the four-part, 45-minute suite Independency, written in 2005 to mark the centenary of Norway's liberation from the union with Sweden. The music never flags for an instant, whether in slow-moving, atmospheric explorations or fiery up-tempo jousting. Outhouse is a fierce workout, while the closing Dreamhorse is simple and very beautiful – the applause at the end seems rudely intrusive on the lovely mood it invokes. Andersen's extended playing technique and use of electronics places his approach to the double bass on a different level to most other players, while Smith's keening saxophone work and Vinaccia's supple, responsive drumming make their own essential impact. Scottish audiences had a taste of what to expect at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, with Alyn Cosker standing in superbly for the drummer, and the album personnel will be heard here next month – needless to say, not to be missed. KENNY MATHIESON

FOLK

THE SHEE: A DIFFERENT SEASON ****

SHEE RECORDS, 11.99

AN IMPRESSIVE debut album from this fresh and focused all-women band. Harpist Rachel Newton, fiddler Olivia Ross and mandolin player Laura Beth Salter alternate on lead vocal duties, and each brings a different dimension to the already diverse selection of songs. Flautist Lillias Kinsman-Blake, fiddler Shona Mooney and accordion player Amy Thatcher complete the band's powerful instrumental line-up, heard to advantage on the energised instrumental sets drawn from a range of sources, including their own tunes as well as the Scottish traditional repertoire and Scandinavian music. KENNY MATHIESON

WORLD

JAPAN: KOTO CLASSICS *****

NONESUCH EXPLORER SERIES, 10.99

JAPAN: GEZA MUSIC FROM THE KABUKI *****

NONESUCH EXPLORER SERIES, 10.99

NEVER again will a record company essay what the producers of the Nonesuch Explorers did in 1967, bringing out a series of superb field recordings to make, eventually, a 92-record set. For the first time, ethnomusicology had borne fruit that could compare in sound quality with commercial recordings, and the world's multifarious non-Western musics could for the first time be savoured in all their rich diversity. The vinyl LPs that constituted this panoptic view covered five continents, and brought to light a wealth of hitherto hidden traditions. That Warners are digitally remastering them, and reissuing them a handful at a time, is simply wonderful, because much of this music – four decades on – is now either extinct or grievously debased.

The koto, which was introduced from China to Japan in the seventh century AD, is one of the world's oldest instruments. Its 13 silk strings are stretched over a six-foot soundboard, and are struck with three ivory plectra attached to the thumb, forefinger, and middle finger of the right hand. Classical koto pieces tend to be slow, yet they demand real virtuosity, which in the hands of Shinichi Yuize they get in full measure. His first piece was written in the late 18th century as an offering to a deceased person's spirit. Poetically named Lingering Moonlight, it opens with that quintessentially Japanese (and jazz) interval, the flatted seventh, then broadens out with an arpeggiated flourish; the mood is grave and meditative, and the notes are bent with slow deliberation. The swooshing slides of Yuize's hands over the long strings increase the feeling of immediacy, as does his vibrato-free voice.

Geza Music from the Kabuki consists of the off-stage accompaniments to a series of Kabuki theatre performances: a populist art-form, but musically thrilling, with the banjo-like shamisen offset by flutes, bells, and drums. MICHAEL CHURCH

AMADOU & MARIAM: WELCOME TO MALI ****

BECAUSE, 11.99

THIS husband-and-wife duo from Mali have achieved significant crossover success in recent years, after coming to prominence with their best-selling Manu Chao-produced Dimanche A Bamako album. Its follow-up also features distinguished company with guest appearances by their countryman Toumani Diabate on kora and Somalian rapper K'Naan. But the name with the potential to reel in new converts is Damon Albarn, who wrote and produced the oriental-flavoured opening track. Elsewhere, the duo succeed in honouring West African musical traditions, while infusing their dynamic sound with electro funk backing tracks, vocoder vocal effects and, for the first time, a couple of English-language songs, as an example of their desire to reach an even wider audience.

FIONA SHEPHERD