Published on Dec 9, 2004
Sometimes, the best part of this job is when I get the CDs I
didn’t ask for. Take, for example,
Ocean: Songs For The Night Journey, the latest work from
electro-folk composer Jennifer Cutting. I had no clue what this was
when I popped it in the old CD player, and I was speedily blown
away. This is a brilliant piece of work by an artist I want
desperately to know more about.
Cutting is a former member of new-folk outfit The New St George,
which from all appearances appears to be the best folk band that
very few people ever heard. (I’ll let you know as soon as I can; I
intend to track their work down as soon as possible). Since NSG’s
breakup in 1996, Cutting has drifted away (you should excuse the
pun) from the more acoustic sound of folk, experimenting more with
fully arranged pieces of music that still draw on her Anglo-Celtic
melodic and instrumental roots. The first fruit of this promising
vine is
Ocean – and it’s a doozy.
The musicians alone on Ocean are impressive. Along with former
band mates Lisa Moscatiello and Rico Petruccelli, Cutting is joined
by members of Steeleye Span (including lead singer Maddy Prior),
Ossian, Fairport Convention, and other luminaries from the US and
British folk music communities. The CD was recorded over seven
years in both the US and England, and is the culmination of
large-scale research into ethnomusicology; this is no mistake, as
Cutting’s is an ethnomusicologist at the Library of Congress. (Nice
credentials, huh?)
OK, I hear you ask, so much for the credentials, how’s the
music? In a word, breathtaking. The simple elegance of tracks like
“My Grief On The Sea” and “The Gladdest Breeze” is only surpassed
by such acts of sheer musical genius (and not a little chutzpah)
such as adapting the “Jupiter” movement from Holst’s The Planets to
the magnificent “Song For The Night Sea Journey”. And the journey
across the sea of Cutting’s brilliance continues to the triumphant
close, an adaptation of Bach’s “If You Are Near”. This is some
potent stuff, folks, and not to be missed.
Jennifer Cutting was a stranger to me when I received
Ocean. Now, I want more, and I want all of you to take your
own voyage into musical magnificence.
You can find out more about Ocean, including how to
order it,
here.