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CUPOLA - Ivy

CUPOLA - Ivy
Coth Records COTHCD007

If the band are indeed named, as they appear to be, after a domed structure on the top of a building, it is quite an apt name. Doug Eunson, Sarah Matthews and Oli Matthews are, if you will, an excellently-formed edifice offering a pleasing panorama of the traditional English music scene. They are in the business of providing good music well played, with little fash and few frills, though the presence of soprano sax, clarinet and hurdy-gurdy add well-judged dashes of spice and variety of timbre to melodeon, fiddle and viola-based tunes.

And tunes there are a-plenty, many from contemporary melodists writing from within the tradition, like Blowzabella, John Spiers and Jon Dipper, as well as a couple of Swedish polskas, all played with a sound sense of dynamics, an admirable unfussiness and mature grace. With a neat sense of symmetry, the five solely instrumental tune sets here are accompanied by five vocal songs. The eponymous Ivy comes from the opening track, the ‘impossible tasks’-based Sing Ivy, matched with the tune Davy Lowston. The perennial ale-wins-all favourite John Barleycorn is given a new melody and a morris tune to accompany it, and the whole album finishes with a wassail. What more could one ask for? This album is a worthy addition to the list of the most well-realised traditional music releases of this year.

Clare Button

 

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This album was reviewed in Issue 94 of The Living Tradition magazine.