Release
Fraya Thomsen, harp.
Self-released, 2022.
Also of note is harpist and vocalist Fraya Thomsen’s extraordinary album of originals, Release. Always fascinated with the music of the Scottish Highlands, Thomsen began the project as a commission for [the live festival]Celtic Connections before it morphed into recordings in musicians’ homes and private studios throughout the pandemic.
The repertoire is grounded in the upbeat Connected that asks us to open our hearts to everyone. Certainly the kicky solos by flutist Sarah Allen will make us believers as will Cameron Maxwell and James Maddren’s driving rhythm. Shanti Jayasinha’s mellow trumpet and Colette O’Leary’s rhapsodic accordion are perfect for Thomsen’s highly percussive lines and overdubbed voices in Love of Shoogles. Catching us off-guard and testing our expectations include the joyous, yet ever so slightly uncertain-what-to-do-with-all-that joy Electrons as well as the sweeping Just this Skyline introducing the lush cello lines of Louise McMonagle. Showing her Celtic cred, Thomsen delights in Mairi Louise Napier’s/Patsy Seddon’s.
To Dance with You
Anne Sullivan, harp, and John McMurtery, flute. Bocage Records, 2022.
The thirteen dreamy miniatures To Dance with You: Music for flute and harp by Louis Anthony deLise trace the light, color and moods evoked by nature throughout one year. Impeccably performed by harpist Anne Sullivan and flutist John McMurtery, each bagatelle goes by in less than three minutes, but together they speak volumes, as if songs without words.
A Time for Peace is pensive and uplifting, where A Trot Through Snow, in five, delights in a perfect blanket of white marred only by gentle footsteps. Also in mixed meter, Little Lydian explodes in wonder while Petite Fall Wonder is all jagged, as if leaves cascading in a rain of gold. Mr. deLise shows his gift for song-writing in Three Little Dancers, its floating quality interrupted by gentle offbeats as it skips along. The title track is the most expansive, putting on full display McMurtery’s luminous tone and Sullivan’s glowing legato. •
