Latest releases reviewed

DITTE FROMSEIER MORTENSEN Anything Strange? Millstream Records ***

Ditte Fromseier Mortensen breaks many rules and yet manages to live by the important ones at the same time. Danish-born, and with a second recording of traditional music under her belt before she's even come close to her third decade, Mortensen's playing is a genre-defying cross between the lonesome earthiness of Donegal fiddling and the sheer vivaciousness of a music hall entertainer. Reel á Isidore Souoy/Le Poteau Blanc reeks of its Quebecois origins, with Francis Ward's freewheeling piano countering Mortensen's fiery fiddle with the verve and confidence of musicians for whom past and present are at one. Mortensen's one original composition, Lufttur, is a revelatory peep into the imagination of a player who can plumb emotional depths as effortlessly as musicians twice her age and experience. www.dittefm.dk

Siobhán Long