Spiro Photo: York Tillyer
Nick Bollinger revels in the classical-folk fusion of Bristol's Spiro.
Spiro is a quartet from Bristol, England, who are due to visit New Zealand this month to play at WOMAD, and in their music the classical and folk elements are so fused that it is hard to identify which starts where. To unpick it a little, accordionist Jason Sparkes and violinist Jane Harbour both come from a classical background, while guitarist Jon Hunt and mandolin player Alex Vann have histories in folk and punk rock, respectively. But together they make a unique quartet: skilled and disciplined and sonically full of surprises.
The playing is as tight and disciplined and meticulously arranged as a classical quartet. Yet folk rhythms and melodies, such as you might encounter in far looser and more raucous settings, are threaded through the album.
The album is full of lovely, folkish themes, but there is also a strong modernist element to Spiro, which seems to have grown out of the more cerebral end of 20th century music. I hear echoes of Steve Reich and Philip Glass, or a later exponent of minimalist style, Michael Nyman.
At other times they show the influence of contemporary electronica. In fact, one of Spiro’s Real World releases has been an album of remixes by Portishead’s Adrian Utley. But though the instrumentation on this album is entirely acoustic, there are times when the tones and techniques conspire to make something that could almost be electronic.
Spiro’s music is entirely instrumental, which leaves you free to conjure your own narratives. But the group clearly have their notions of what these pieces are about. The album’s title Welcome Joy and Welcome Sorrow is borrowed from the poet Keats, and it’s not the only place where they nod to the great British poets. This tune takes its title from a Ted Hughes poem, ‘The Though Fox’, and with its delicate paw-prints of mandolin and violin, it evokes Hughes’s imaginary animal stepping onto the blank page.
Songs played: I Am The Blaze On Every Hill, One Train May Hide Another, Thought Fox, Will You Go Walk In The Woods So Wild, Burning Bridge
Welcome Joy And Welcome Sorrow is available on Real World
