A recemt release rated

ENGLISH ACOUSTIC COLLECTIVE
Ghosts Ruf Records
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And now for something completely different. The English Acoustic Collective, brainchild of fiddler Chris Wood, is an unashamedly baroque gathering of English traditional tunes married with more contemporary pieces. Woods' essentially academic leanings bring a certain taut sensibility to the collection, replete with architectural clean lines and wide open spaces. John Dipper brings fiddle and Robert Harbron offers sublime concertina to complete the trio. Woods describes the task of the modern folk musician when melding the music of past and present as one of straddling a fine line "between a dig in the ribs and the snores of boredom". With haughty fiddle strings reverberating against the tiny  pleatfolds of the concertina (and the occasional song peeking through the gaps), this is precisely the dig in the ribs that English folk needs. www.englishacousticcollective.org.uk

Siobhán Long