In Gowan Ring

IN GOWAN RING - ‘Hazel Steps Through A Weathered Home’ [LUNE 004] Available from Lune Music, BM Lune, London WC1N 3XX, England. Reviewed by Troy Southgate

I caught IN GOWAN RING live when they came to London to support Rose McGowan’s SORROW a few years ago, and ended up having a very interesting post-performance chat with B’eirth, the group’s lead vocalist. I was also pleased to note that he was genuinely interested in all things Folk, and told him about the fantastic song library they have over at Cecil Sharp House in North London. This, IGR’s fourth full-length recording, is assisted by the likes of Michael Moynihan (bodhran) and Annabel Lee (violin/viola) of BLOOD AXIS, Philip & Gayle Neuman (alto/tenor sackbut) of DE ORGONOGRAPHIA/O.R.B. and Margie Wienk (violincello) from IDITAROD, FERN KNIGHT and EYESORES. The opening track, ‘The Orb Weavers’, has a slowly-scything bow oozing gentle sadness over a sweet guitar-picking melody and the softly-spoken vocal style that we’ve come to expect from IGR. Five minutes spent in Paradise. And then a bodhran’s rolling beater smoothes us on into ‘Hazel Steps’, as B’eirth’s lilting voice recalls the golden age of late-1960s Folk. This is a moderate soft-shoe embrace for lovers who ‘dance a hazel step in fluid pace [and] trace whispers in the clear’, swirling dresses and dreamy eyes found cavorting slowly ‘by light of full moon glare’. The acoustic strains and calculated, nursery-rhyme delivery of ‘The Seer and the Seen’ remind me of Robert N. Taylor’s CHANGES, a song released in the present but so very steeped in the past. ‘Kingdom of the Shades’ introduces yet more instrumentation in the form of a plunking harp and husky flute, their notes descending like falling leaves and weaving a musical tapestry that entreats the listener to ‘swim within this dream’. A nice introduction, perhaps, for ‘Morning’s Waking Dream’, an upbeat strum of chords accompanied by a vocalisation that would grace any NICK DRAKE album. ‘A Poet’s Lyre’ is a proud gypsy strut of barely-moving Cimbolom and drifting voices, an Irish-sounding dirge at a funeral of ‘black earth’. In ‘The Wind That Cracked the Leaves’, the vocals are slightly deeper and more emotional. The plucking of the guitar strings and quickening psychedelic voices are a constant reminder that Time’s cyclical ticking will one day cleave us all ‘low to the ground’. Finally, ‘Two Towers’ - which was written prior to 9/11 and whose relevance to such events are purely ‘coincidental or mysterious’ - is a combination of piano and voice, tried elsewhere by CURRENT 93 but in this case more structured and songlike. At this point the circle closes but does not end. My interpretation of the ‘weathered home’ mentioned both here and in several of the other songs on this CD, is that nature marches endlessly onwards to claim the ‘lonely limbs’ that have no real effect upon the world and who ‘limp in life awhile’ before finally succumbing to the ‘churn and wallow’ of the ages. The Weathered Home: surely this is the one certainty, the only constant upon which all of us can and must depend? This is a fine and refreshing album, putting both man and nature in the correct perspective. If you would like more details, visit the IG website at http://www.ingowanring.com