From Bali to Bulgaria, Georgia to South Africa, then closer to home, this unique and intriguing album takes you places – but it helps to know a bit about the background of the tunes to really get a sense of their depth and discovery.
Hedera is a five-woman Bristol based folk project (Lulu Austin, Laisie Brett, Tamsin Elliott, Beth Roberts and Isis Wolf-Light). They began meeting informally to play tunes around winter bonfires – grateful to have a musical outlet during the pandemic while their regular projects were halted due to lockdown. During this down time they discovered a shared love of listening deeply, playing slowly and finding news ways to support each other musically.
Over time, the ensemble evolved into something more structured, yet still retaining the intimacy and conviviality of its beginnings.
The outcome is their long-awaited eponymous debut album. ‘Hedera’ is a collection of original and traditional pieces translated through a prism of experimental minimalism and contemporary classical influences. As composers, tune-interpreters and collaborative arrangers, they have carved out a sound that draws on their individual knowledge and skill.
More than half of the album comprises original tracks, each composed by an individual and brought to completion by the rest of the band. Opening track ‘Sterretjie’ features a buoyant melody by Maisie Brett, conjuring a sense of light as the tune passes swiftly between violins, clarinet and accordion. She composed it while working towards an ecology PhD while in South Africa. She named the tune after the terns found along the coastline, which in Afrikaans translates to ‘little stars’ – which makes sense when you hear it.
‘Waterwheel’, composed by accordionist/harpist Tamsin Elliott, was the first original pieces the band collaborated on together. She describes it as a series of ‘Melodic fragments that could be played in different combinations, simultaneously or in series. It draws on my love of minimalism.’ As the melodies shift unpredictably around each other, the colliding rhythms surge dramatically and eventually subside, returning to the sparse, sparkling atmosphere of the opening.
‘Sekar Jagat’ – Flower of the Universe in Balinese – owes is name and opening interlocking motif to a traditional Balinese Gamelan piece. It’s transformed by composer and clarinettist Isis Wolf-Light into a mesmerising piece that honours the tradition that inspired it, while exploring the possibilities of Hedera’s post-classical sound.
A lifelong Gamelan devotee, Wolf-Light spend two years in Bali, immersed in that music. It fuses Balinese rhythms with Western folk instrumentalism.
Hedera’s persuasive interpretations of traditional pieces include ‘Koga Me Mama Rodila’ – a Bulgarian song and popular circle dance which celebrates the natural beauty of the Trakian landscape. With an ornamented clarinet introduction, the song gradually emerges beyond the instruments, beginning with Beth Roberts solitary voice and expanding into a four part harmony before fading away on a unison hum. It is quite beautiful.
The album also features a thousand year old hymn from Georgia ‘Shen Khar Venakhi’ which evaded erasure during the Soviet purges de to its nature-based imagery. A seamless transition takes them into ‘She’s Sweetest When She’s Naked’ – a Northumbrian tune over 400 years old.
Traditional Irish air ‘An Buachaillin Ban’ is arranged for lever harp, violin and Hardanger, creating a wistful prelude for ‘Mayflies in June’, a waltz written by Beth Roberts.
Hedera’s sound is defined by five musicians’ multi-faceted relationships with each other, and their respective practices and traditions, they welcome two guests in toward the end of the album – for ‘The Long Awaited rain’ which features Rowan Elliott and Sid Goldsmith contributing five string fiddle and cittern.
The album is a spellbinding dual collection of reimagined traditional material and newly conceived post-classical pieces, and is a testament to a remarkable ensemble’s collective imagination and musicianship.