Knapp & Diver mingle heritage and history with studio magic to produce a gothic collision of some splendour.

Release Date : 7th March 2025

Label : Ear To The Ground recordings

Format : CD / vinyl / digital

The latest in a short series of exemplary debuts, Hinterland may well be the 4th album by Lisa Knapp, and more, if you include her collaborations, notably last year’s Hack Poets Guild, with Marry Waterson and Nathanilel Mann, but this is her first to apply equal billing to her producer husband, multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver, always a constant beside and behind her work. Why now this David Rawlings moment is uncertain, other than his participation has never been that much of a secret, anyway. (Completists may already be also aware of his solo Speech Project, Knapp free, allying spoken word from such luminaries as Christy Moore, Damien Dempsey and Shane MacGowan, with his own instrumental concoctions, let alone a vast catalogue of production credits encompassing Billy Bragg to Martin Carthy, Tom Robinson to Glen Matlock.)

YIN AND YANG

Never daunted by studio experimentation, Diver has always been the yin to the yang of Knapp’s finely hewn crystalline vocals, that can be as sweet as a linnet, sweeping over the industrial soundscapes dreamt up by her husband. Here, rather than pursuing too far the sonic possibilities of the studio, Diver has taken a (slight) step back into his own heritage, of Irish fiddle play and the open road. With still some surprises, of course.

Hinterlands opens with a fiddle that is backed by some clanks and creaks, that eventually become a clattering rhythm, over which Knapp’s voice soars. The sound is redolent of pots and pans, swaying in the back of a horsedrawn traveller’s caravan, that voice casting a spectral shadow over the artisanal accompaniment. It becomes eerier still, as thwacks and thumps of bass drum thunder in, the fiddle now pizzicato, and multiple Knapps becoming a siren chorale.With a slow burning build, what little of the lyric as can be discerned, refers to the shapeshifting capability of the birds in question, and it is an imposing opening statement.

INTO THE WYRD

Train Song then backtracks into wyrd, and might well be a companion piece to Shipping Song, the opening track on Knapp’s second release, Hidden Seam. Over a repeating electric piano motif, she slowly intones what she can see, through the window of a moving train: “Graveyard, old stone, wire fence“, with that same bass drum adding gradual counterpoint, if failing to unsettle the overall feel of serenity. It is hypnotic, drawing in the listener, even as the momentum builds, with fiddle adding some red sky at night elements. Some treated vocal harmonies try to break the litany, but on it still trundles, the view becoming now less of countryside and more of industrial complex, the arrangement picking subtly up on that contrast. “Poverty, luxury……… “. Tremendous stuff.

Organ then beckons in Starr Carr, with off key and off kilter double-tracked vocals, which vie with each other to magick up a sense of ceremony. A lone jigging fiddle meets a drone, ahead near cacophony, which, however disturbing and dark, still contains sufficient musical muscle as to make sense. Percussion takes prime position, which is the moment to remark on the integral role that Bellowheader, Pete Flood, is giving to this record, a one man industrial revolution. You are then grateful for the respite of Monaghan Jig/Monks Jig Set, a pair of relatively ungarnished fiddle tunes. With both Knapp and Diver accomplished players, one providing bow drawn melody whilst the other plucks, there is little else in the frame.

A GLORIOUS SLICE OF TRAD ARR

Palates duly cleansed, I Must Away Love is a glorious slice of trad.arr., ushered in by a doleful organ chord and a billow of strings. Knapp’s soprano then fills all the available space, before a loping banjo lurches in to provide a tentative rhythm.

Almost by default, gradually in seeps some muted electronica, sitting very comfortably with the organic, as if always so designed. A worthy exemplar of how the two can co-habit without confounding, this is Diver at his studio best. Not that he isn’t beyond challenging perceptions, with Long Lankin then drawn out into a gothic force majeur. This well travelled ballad begins with Knapp in unaccompanied mode. Each and every step is carefully plotted in sound, as strings shimmer, keys tinkle, and other, possibly random notes, drop detachedly in and out. Before you know it, Flood has wellied in with a storm of percussion. This is the main focus, vocal apart, and carries the song through to its six minute plus conclusion. Even if you know the song, this carries more foreboding than any version before it.

SOOTHING INTERLUDES, LURKING HORRORS

A more soothing interlude comes next, with Penumbra. Fiddles and possibly synth, possibly further fiddle, or even musical saw, impart a near Twin Peaks-ian dimension of repetition and build. Twin Peaks if David Lynch had set it in County Wicklow, mind. Loving Hannah sees the return of the banjo, over a backdrop of pipe organ. A beautiful slice of backwoods old Appalachia, it is unusually free of any lurking horror, and presents a whole new vista, the storms now settled. Knapp’s delivery is pure McGarrigle, and I didn’t sense this one coming at all. OK, look hard, listen hard and there may be some warning discordancy on the horizon, but, believe me, it is yours, not the duo here.

That sense is underwritten by the closing Lass Of Aughrim, another lingering old timey ballad, led by Diver’s faltering piano, which preserves the melody in a soft focus sepia tint. Yes, as chilling any the earlier songs, but in a good way, a searchlight cutting through the deep dark woods of before, Fiddle snuggles in and the world feels transformed, and a whole less forbidding. Timeless and haunting, this closing allows the album to leave as a much loved lamb, rather than the lion it began with. Which is, is it not, pure essence of March.

Try out Train Song, with the video, don’cha know, coming, like the album artwork, courtesy fellow Hack Poet, Marry Waterson:

Lisa Knapp/Gerry Diver online : Website (Knapp) / Website (Diver) / Facebook / X (formerly Twitter) / Instagram

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