Sometimes, music comes right when you need it most. Like a movie, where the princess has been captured, with a knife to her throat: suddenly, the protagonist comes to save her right in the nick of time. These scenarios don’t happen in real life, but Martin Callingham’s album came to me just at the right moment. When I’m having a sucky day, this album is now my must-listen.
Tonight, We All Swim Free – released on Folkwit records – is the debut solo album by Martin Callingham, frontman of folk outfit Joyce The Librarian. The band’s 2012 album was well received in its circles and also from the UK’s best radio DJs – Lauren Laverne, Gideon Coe and Radio 1’s Phil Taggart and Alice Levine. A short hiatus for the band has resulted in Callingham’s own 25 minute masterpiece of a folk record. Its briefness is not in equivalence to its impact however, quite the opposite.
The album begins with a short and exquisitely beautiful intro track ‘Rhosgoch’, complete with stunning legato strings which glissando back and forth creating a gently subtle rocking motion that leads the listener into the next track, ‘Knots’. This song’s brisk pace is in keeping with its optimistic attitude, “these knots won’t hold…not for long”, these simple yet direct analogies that are so common in this type of folk are the key to my adoration for the genre. There is an understanding between the artist and listener, a mutual joy that can be appreciated wherever and whoever you are. One of the best tracks on Tonight, We All Swim Free is undeniably ‘Portland Square’. A broody and mysterious creation, minor inflections are sprinkled here and there giving it insipid movement and anticipation. Callingham has a lovely, yet slightly husky and edgy, vocal that is oddly enchanting and ethereal. Like a fine wine, his voice is elegant and full to perfectly accompany the gourmet meal that is this album.
Tonight We All Swim Free is out 16th February.
Photo Credit: Dylan Kissel
Elli Brazzill
@littlelionelli
Elli Brazzill
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