Suilven Rec.
Daniel Patrick Quinn : Severed from the land (UK,2004)**°
This is one of such items which are difficult to describe in style. On the first tracks it redefines a folk flavoured area into something else. On “A wide wooded valley” we hear a minimalist cello with a fender Rhodes like synthesizer that gives a hypnotic beauty to the song. He himself describes the music as ambient/ folk/ semi-jazz/ drone/ minimalism/ humour/ avant-garde/ monologue/ vocals/ instrumentals, yes, why not. Second track, “The tip of the Iceberg” with a moody basis of cello and bass, with a relaxed walk like guitar strumming, it creates (with the trumpet and electronic synthesizer sounds) such a jazzy touch like Jon Hassell at it best, that takes you somewhere else. “Nine Standards Rigg” a half sung / half narrated track again recalls if you wish better examples of folk favoured items in the 80’s outside the folk area (like some ReR label related items like Camberwell Now for instance). Here the cello, trumpet, bass and keyboards create much more its own moody spheres, like it rarely could happen in earlier examples of the eighties of some of the better early neo-folk related items. “Spring Green” is a repetitive and sober minimalist piece. Also “Ettrick Pen” is similar, but this time it is possibly influenced by more ambient evolutions. Last track, “The weight of history” says it is recorded with cello and guitar. But we hear a complex droning of sounds, strangely sounding in between acoustic, amplified and electronic sounds. An experimental ambient approach.
The cover of the album gives the impression that the music is song orientated, but in fact, even when it is within its variety as one consistent, pleasant to listen to, release, it still is hardly definable within a certain category. Very good !
