A collection of European dance tunes from Gentile & Wood, played with meticulous and tender loving care. 

Release Date:  6^th December 2024

Label: Grimdon Records

Formats: CD / Digital

FAMILIAR FACES

Helen Gentile and Lewis Wood are familiar faces around the UK folk community – both individually and collectively.  Helen (clarinet and whistle) may be familiar to you as a member of Hampshire-based folk outfit, Threepenny Bit, and you might know Lewis as a solo performer or, perhaps, as a mainstay of the acclaimed Granny’s Attic, or even as a musician and dancer in one of several morris sides.  Then again, they’ve been performing as a duo for around ten years now, so it’s highly likely that you’ve come across them at one of the regular dance events that they host.

The duo have one previous album to their name; Alors, On Dance was recorded during a mid-lockdown livestream in October 2020.  Violet Sky is their debut studio album and features a collection of both original and traditional dance tunes, all with the European flavour – French, Swedish and Breton styles in particular – that has become their trademark.

The critics have already begun to sit up and take notice of Helen Gentile and Lewis Wood and I make no apology for repeating the praise of the Songlines Magazine writer who commented: “The clarinet and fiddle interweave seamlessly and the playing is faultless,” because that’s a description that captures the essence of Violet Sky – in one succinct sentence.  The tunes are, predominantly, played using just Helen’s clarinet and Lewis’s fiddle and the slight embellishments – a touch of whistle from Helen, a dash of guitar from Lewis and the lightest dusting of harmonium from Lewis and from producer Alex Garden – all add up to an album on which the space is of equal importance to the music.

DANCES FROM THE BALFOLK CANON

Each of the tunes featured on Violet Sky is linked to a specific dance from within the Balfolk – the European folk dance – canon.  Providing the music for dancers to interpret is Helen’s and Lewis’s mission in life – as Helen readily admits: “Playing for Dancing is an integral part of our creative process.  It is humbling to be informed by the dancers, with creativity in dance informing creativity in music.”

It’s a set of traditional tunes, Limousin Bourées, that gets Violet Sky underway.  The tunes, La Courbaise and La Pradinoise originate in the Limousin Region of Central France and they’re a sprightly, upbeat pair of tunes which are a staple of the duo’s live performances.  Helen takes the lead on her clarinet, whilst Lewis keeps pace with some nifty fiddle work.

Triangle is a medley of two of Helen’s earliest compositions and the track is an instant earworm.  Helen’s clarinet – which takes on a jazzy tone as the tunes progress – takes the lead and the strums of Lewis’s guitar are subtle, yet thoroughly effective.  And Lewis celebrates “…the joy of taking time out of the rush of modern life…” with the glorious Coffee and No One.  It’s a vision that he captures perfectly, with an engaging, restful tune that evokes a scene of everyone rushing around whilst you, the observer, lazily watches.

IN TELEPATHIC ACCORD

Kentish melodeonist Will Allen is a leading exponent of the Quebecois musical tradition and it’s that tradition that seems to have inspired his offering, Temps Gris.  The title means “Grey Weather” and the tune is another highly evocative piece that conjures up vivid images of the storm over the Sheppey Marshes that inspired Will to write it.  Pigeonhawk, the second tune in the set is a calmer affair, with both Helen and Lewis serving up light, airy, melodies from their respective instruments.

Swedish dance tunes always seem to have something light, bright and uplifting about them and the traditional Skrap-Ollas Polska fits that bill entirely.  The tune was collected by Swedish fiddler and watchmaker, Karl Karlsson-Falström, allegedly from the village of in the Swedish county of Värmland and, once again, Helen’s clarinet and Lewis’s violin are in telepathic accord.

The next stop on Helen’s and Lewis’s European tour is Poland for Violet Sky, a mazurka written by Lewis.  The tune’s title was inspired by the transformation, one day, of the sky’s colour to a rich purple, and that transformation is reproduced by the tones of Helen’s clarinet as she underpins – but never dominates – Lewis’s stirring fiddle gymnastics. 

CREEP PAST THE HEAD OF A SLEEPING CAT

Su Eaton and Clare Rose – both friends of Helen and Lewis – came up with the pair of bourées presented here as Raspberry.  They’re a fascinating pair of tunes – Su’s part (cheekily tagged “Raspberry Bourée!) is bouncy, with a distinct Russian flavour, whilst Clare’s part, Ses Filles Mineurs, is reminiscent of the music to one those cartoons when a mouse tries to creep past the head of a sleeping cat.  Apparently, Helen and Lewis love playing this set live, and it isn’t difficult to see why.

Helen’s whistle and Lewis’s violin both hurtle along at a hell-for-leather pace on Jigs, a couple of jointly-composed tunes, before things are slowed right back down for the delightful Four Forty-Five, so titled because Lewis, an occasional insomniac, composed the tune at that hour of the morning one day.  Lewis plays a soothing, sleepy, guitar part, whilst Helen seems to herald the rising of the morning’s sun with her clarinet.

BRETON FLAVOURINGS

Helen picked up the traditional Kost Ar C’hoats at the Cercle Celtique de Rennes festival during the period that she was based in Brittany.  A kos tar c’hoat is a lively Breton dance and Helen’s and Lewis’s music will whisk you off your feet to whirl like a dervish.  And we stick with the Breton flavourings for Meditation, the album’s closing track.  It’s a tune, from Helen, that builds dramatically, with Helen’s clarinet adding a pastoral quality to Lewis’s slightly ominous fiddle tones.  Helen has said that: “We like to play this tune in a slightly improvised way, which we think gives it an almost meditative quality.”  I can see where she’s coming from.

Violet Sky is an excellent album – a collection of engaging and entertaining tunes, all played with masterful skill and meticulous and tender loving care.

Watch the official video to Limousin Bourée – a track from the album and, delightfully, featuring the cats, Chance & Bobo – here:

Helen Gentile & Lewis Wood online: Facebook / YouTube / Bandcamp

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