| Reviews
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fROOTs Magazine July 2008
Horses Brawl
Dindirin Brawl Records BRAWL003
A fiddle/guitar duo, Horses Brawl – no apostrophe
– also make frequent use of recorders and crumhorns as well as doing
odd things to guitars, like playing them with an oyster card (they
don’t say if still worked afterwards). Their material is drawn from
13th – 17th centuries plus European folk traditions but the sparsity
of the instrumentation aligns their music much more with the earlier
end of that spectrum. Nobody sings and the effect, even in the moments
of “wild abandon”, (their words) is quite stark. Unquestionably,
that can work, as on Bibit which builds up some serious intensity.
Whether it’s something you could happily take in 40 minutes of at
one sitting, without the additional input a live performance offers,
is another question. It certainly isn’t ‘all the same’ but it is
using, however inventively, a deliberately limited palette – you
can see why polyphonic music caught on. Lest that seem too much
of a downer, individual sections have a lot to offer, especially
the near seamless move between La Gamba (The Leg, if my minimal
knowledge of Italian serves) and Alca. This isn’t perhaps a record
that you ‘get’ instantly, and there are occasions when the musicians
are maybe playing for their own satisfaction rather than your listening
pleasure, but some rewarding music is here to be discovered.
Nick Beale
"Dindirin", the song of the nightingale
passing messages between two lovers, sets the stage for English,
Spanish and Italian music from the 12th to the 19th century. At
times experimental and virtuosic, they fuse folk, traditional and
baroque music with a contemporary feel. Laura and Adrian take no
prisoners, e.g. the traditional East Anglian fiddle tune "Shave
the Donkey" sounds like a Scandinavian nyckelharpa piece. Thus
Horses Brawl and "Dindirin" never get boring. Search it
out!"
Folkworld
2007 10th year anniversary issue
REVIEW FOR THE ARGUS, BRIGHTON, 26 OCT 2007
Horse’s Brawl
Komedia
Gardner Street
Wednesday
"Fifty years ago, early music was largely forgotten. Its rehabilitation
paralleled the folk revival and a new generation of musicians is
now recognising early music and folk have common roots. Opening
the show, Claire Troth (soprano) and Jamie Akers (lute) performed
The Death of Queen Jane, a mediaeval song Joan Baez sang in 1967,
and finished with a modern pop song from Sting. Superb.
But Horse’s Brawl, classically-trained Laura Cannell and folk guitarist
Adrian Lever, were better. This Norfolk duo manage to create haunting,
strange but extraordinarily beautiful music with just a guitar,
a fiddle and some recorders and crumhorns, blending both traditions
into a unique, new style. It felt as if we were present at the birth
of the first great musical movement of the 21st century. Their music
is best heard live but, failing that, features on their second CD,
Dindirin. Congratulations to Brighton Early Music Festival for introducing
them. Bring them back soon!"
Paul Brazier
Properganda Magazine No. 7
"Duo Adrian Lever (guitar) and Laura Cannell (recorder,
fiddle & crumhorns) have made a considerable impact with their
blend of early music and folk. This album is set to step their career
up several gears as they hit the ground running with a refined balance
of the plaintive (Fawrhoro) and energetic (Shave the Donkey)."
MUSICIAN Magazine - Journal of the Musician's Union Autumn
2007
BBC RADIO 2
Horses Brawl - Horses Brawl (Brawl Records)
Horses Brawl is a youthful trio from East Anglia who take
their primary cue from what nowadays is termed “early music” - in
this case specifically European dance music of medieval and Renaissance
times. Laura Cannell, Adrian Lever and Jonathan Manton play (respectively)
recorders, fiddle and crumhorn; guitar (steel-strung and Spanish);
and cello. This instrumental complement should drop the strongest
hint that here is no mere musical tourism, no slavish repro or retro
imitation, no Circulus eccentrics or Gryphonic grotesquerie.
In the case of Horses Brawl, their musical explorations turn out
to be substantial and yes, intriguing. Technically highly competent
musicians, they take their music-making perfectly seriously, sure,
but their playing is bustling and energetic, emphatically not that
of the stuffy or staid museum-piece, and laced with a sense of good
humour that recalls Hoover The Dog. When in more pensive mood especially,
their work has an intelligent chamber-like approach to texture that
often makes you wonder how they achieve such a full and intricate
sound with only three players. Often, too, they take their temporal
cues further forward to employ baroque ornamentation, and equally
often they utilise folk modes, especially those of Eastern Europe,
yet (perhaps against initial expectations) the resulting melting-pot
manages to pull it all together into a cohesive and satisfying organic
whole that makes very rewarding listening.
Horses Brawl make what sound like at one and the same time experimental
and completely natural progressions between tunes and textures,
and their music is by turns sensuous and frivolous, carefree and
unsettling. Take the twists and turns of the Douce Dame set, which
marries a Machaut piece with a frantic Bulgarian Rucenista, or the
altogether weird sonorities of the opening section of Galliard,
which features Adrian on bowed guitar in counterpoint to what sounds
like a crumhorn improvisation, or the Spanish waltz A Bruxa which
receives an interesting “staggered-rhythm” treatment.
Admittedly, the pithy track titles don't always function as ideal
signposts or do the music justice; and once or twice elsewhere I
sensed a slight aimlessness, that the musicians themselves weren't
quite sure where they wanted the music to go, but they're always
quick to pull themselves back on course and the impression soon
dissipates in a thrill of discovery (or re-discovery). Horses Brawl
are both quite original and truly fascinating, and their music is
certainly worth hearing if you've any sense of adventure.
David Kidman NETRHYTHMS.COM
Queen Elizabeth Hall performance
on 22.11.06
"The candle-lit foyer filled up with students and twentysomethings
as the early music duo Horses Brawl plied their blend of foot-tapping
folk rhythms and baroque ornamentation".
THE TELEGRAPH
Twisted Folkat the arts depot.
" a dazzling rendition of a Romanian folk tune, then a French
Gavotte made familiar by the monoliths of instrumental folk Carthy
and Swarbrick. There was an air of those two greats about ‘Horses
Brawl’. Laura Cannell’s virtuoso violin and recorder playing was
matched and accompanied skilfully by Adrian Lever’s Carthy-esque
guitar."
Review by Tom Astley
www.fly.co.uk Read full review
Horses Brawl Album Review
Songlines Magazine
Gymnastic anachronisms from terpsichorean trio "The music of
this trio, with Laura Cannell on recorder and crumhorn, Adrian Lever
on guitar and Jonathan Manton on cello, takes as its starting point
the dance music of medieval and Renaissance Europe, performed with
tremendous energy, virtuosity and verve. It’s clear that each performer
has achieved a level of technical assurance and experience, and
their familiarity with elements of European folk adds an extra dimension
to the sound. Romanian, Bulgarian and English Traditional dances
rub shoulders with material such as ‘Douce Dame Jolie’, a virelai
by the seminal French composer and poet Guillaume de Machaut (performed
here as an instrumental), and happy experiments with sound colour
and technique means that it is sometimes impossible to tell exactly
who is doing what.
Cannell’s fleet recorder scoots along above lively ostinato figures
and rambunctious strumming, while slower pieces carefully balance
emotion and poise. The bouncy good humour that marks much of the
playing here is clearly founded on deep knowledge and long study,
yet there is neither a slavish attempt to imitate folk styles, nor
have the players taken out shares in the deeply irritating ‘Merrie
Englande Inc’. Instead they have come up with a solid piece of work
which bears repeated listening, and makes me want to see them live
– not simply to find out how they produce such fascinating and intricate
textures with a band that is only three members strong.”
SONGLINES Magazine
"There's a lot of sublety and invention in the ways [Horses
Brawl] find to combine the sounds at their disposal - the delicate
arrangement of Douce Dame Jolie borders on chamber music."
fROOTS
Horses Brawl were in the fROOTS Top Ten album Playlist
for March 2006 www.frootsmag.com And on the fROOTS Radio Playlist.
Horses Brawl at Norwich Arts Centre 7th January 2006
published in The Recorder Magazine Reviewer Eli
Fosbrooke-Brown
"Horses Brawl is a fairly recently-formed trio - Laura Cannell,
Adrian Lever, and Jonathan Manton, playing recorders, crumhorns,
violins, guitars, and 'cello. They bring a fresh and entertaining
light to European mediaeval tunes and melodies, founded on scholarship
and a serious knowledge of the music but with the addition of creativity
and humour. On Saturday I went to see them at Norwich Arts Centre.
The programme began with a hopping dance, as Laura told us, adding
"There's another one later, and it would really make me happy
if anyone would have a hop during it"; and indeed three people
did so, to their own round of applause. Laura created a drone-sound
by playing two recorders at once. I had wondered how a repertoire
based on mediaeval music, mainly dance tunes, would work on primarily
modern instruments and without percussion. The answer is that they
do have percussion. Guitar used percussively I've met before, but
a 'cello used as a drum? Fear not for the safety of the lovely cello,
though - Jon has stuck on a bright green taxdisc holder to protect
the wood from his thumping.
They use the instruments in innovative ways to produce sounds which
are reminiscient of mediaeval instruments - for example, the part
that sounds so much like a hurdygurdy is in fact a violin played
with the bow outside and around it. In one piece the guitar is bowed,
too (Adrian's preparation is an amusing piece of stage business,
entailing rather more rosin and squeaking strings than may be musically
necessary). The cello is hit, slapped, tweaked, plucked, and slithered,
as well as conventionally bowed; Jon even uses a plectrum at times.
The result is an astounding range of textures.
Of course, it helps that all three are superb musicians, with the
accurate and warm ensemble that brings out the best in dance tunes.
They have to tune between almost every piece - not because of the
environment or dodgy strings, but because their arrangements call
for so many different and unusual tunings. To pass the time while
tuning, they make little jokes about needing to be rich enough to
have a suite of guitars and 'cellos ready-prepared, and handed to
them by attendants. Laura: "You'll miss all our tuning when
we stop!" Jon: "Yes, and there's no tuning on the CD".
The mood varies from toe-tappingly jolly to sensually languorous
and even to the strange and almost disturbing, as in the first part
of Galliard (Branle des Chevaux); from traditional to Machaut to
their own composed works. Most are neatly-paired tunes (in the style
of folk-dance music), from various parts of Europe, as far as Istanbul.
This is historical performance brought into our times, giving us
some feel for what the music must have been like for the original
listeners. The hour passed very swiftly! You can read more about
them on their website and order their first CD, released through
their very own record company Brawl Records
Carmina Burana St Andrews Hall Norwich
reviewed by Christopher Smith - Eastern Daily Press
"On Saturday night, UEA let its musical hair down in a thundering
interpretation of Carmina Burana. Carl Orff's setting of Latin and
German text from the Middle Ages calls for large forces and total
commitment. The performers on this occassion were very happy to
respond wholeheartedly.
For good measure, conductor Howard Williams invited Horses Brawl,
a group that specialises in period styles, to play some original
settings of the songs that inspired the composer. The touch of authenticity
was as welcome as the reedy sound of Laura Cannell's crumhorn. These
quiet interludes helped bring out the vigour of the thrilling climaxes....."
Horses Brawl - Album Launch Party
'Tradition' Magazine No.13 Winter Solstice 2005
"Their playing mothods were highly experimental, Horses Brawl's
performance was technically wonderful. It all seemed so natural
as if the instruments have always been played like that. This combined
with their choice of tunes and fun banter made it well worth making
the effort to see them live. Indeed, unless you've had the chance
to see them live, it's impossible to appreciate just how some of
their wonderful sounds are made.""A fantastic, vibrant
performance, i'd strongly recommend their CD"
'
Horses Brawl ****
Album review By Brian Gaudet
Eastern Daily Press 11.11.2005
"One of the most impressive "local" albums in a long
time showcasing the talents of this young Norfolk instrumental trio.
Horses Brawl have gained a growing reputation on the Norfolk folk
and acoustic circuit for a few years now. Laura Cannell (recorders,
fiddle and crumhorns), Adrian Lever (guitars) and Jonathan Manton
(cello) all feature here as star performers on an impressive, and
highly enjoyable, selection of tunes. They range over 700 years
of European dancing with tunes from medieval France, Bulgaria, Spain,
Italy and Romania. The tunes vary from being brisk and breezy to
slow and seductive. Perhaps only the traditional Elizabethan Jig,
Bear Dance and Northern Frisk may be familiar to English ears, but
this set proves the value of cross-channel cultural mix. A band
well worth catching live or on CD."
Read our feature and interview with
Martin Barber from BBC Norfolk on the BBC websit
e "Horses Brawl were my highlight of the day...... They sounded
like a mix of Australia's Dirty Three and the chamber band Telegraph
Melts, which, if you haven't heard either, is high praise indeed.
They're also the only band since The Go! Team to make the recorder
sound cool and that's no easy task."
Michael Saunders BBC Norfolk Blast reporter at BBC COAST
August 2005
"Pure delight, such sounds as you have never heard before.
A sweet and unusual mixture of instruments, often played in an unconventional
manner. Don't miss Horses Brawl if you get a chance to see them
perform"
The Skelton Festival News 2004
"Horses Brawl's music is vibrant,
engaging and completely spellbinding.....I love it. One of the most
refreshing sounds around at the moment."
Steafan Hannigan|
"a wonderful concert full of vivacity and invention"
Director of the Little Missenden Festival
"A fascinating progression from formal dance music to semi-improvisation
that had the packed audience roaring for more"
Diane Easby fRoots forum Album launch review
"It's great Stuff"
Verity Sharp BBC Radio 3 Late Junction
"A really vibrant and talented act"
Wymondham Festival
"Horses Brawl take you on a fantastic journey, performed with
energy and exuberance"
Eastern Daily Press
"What wonderful heartfelt music!"
Kelly Clement KTAO FM, New Mexico
National Portrait Gallery - 22nd July 2005
reviewed by Diane Easby fRoots Forum
"You know that French dance tune Horses Branle? Well, you won't
be able to dance to it the way Horses Brawl play it. They slow it
way down to an air, the guitar is played with a double bass bow
at capo 10, the cello serves as a percussion instrument and the
fiddler swaps effortlessly into crumhorn and recorder parts. The
band comprises three recent music performance graduates who do traditional,
medieval and original music from all over Europe using contemporary
sources and techniques on both modern and old instruments.
And such fun they have, whether it's nicking a tune from a 10-year-old
Norfolk fiddling prodigy and arranging it in a bewildering series
of variations or confounding everyone with a Bulgarian Chara that
skips impishly from 9 to 7 time mid bar, they impress mightily with
their seemingly effortless musical skill.
Cellist Jonathan Manton is also a percussionist so it seemed a really
good idea to stick plates onto his instrument and bang them. He
plays mainly pizzicato, both above and below the barre. And if you
thought Chris Wood did odd things with his fiddle, Jonathan tops
that, using one as a ukelele. Guitarist Adrian Lever (ex Acaysha)
likes a high register which probably costs him a fortune in strings
and capos. It is, however, a joy to hear him swapping and matching
melodies with fiddler Laura Cannell who proved herself a fine composer.
It's a very interesting path from formal dance music to semi-improvisation.
I'm delighted to have discovered this band."
'PLAY Norwich' Issue
9 August 2005
Know your local bands......
HORSES BRAWL
Who they?:
Laura Cannell (fiddle, recorder), Adrian Lever (Guitar) and Jonathan
Manton (cello).
What the papers say:
"It's great stuff..." BBC Radio 3
What the band say:
Exuberant instrumental trio with roots in medieval and traditional
folk..."
Who loves ya?:
The band are playing gigs left, right and centre at the moment,
including a recent set at The National Portrait Gallery. Their unusual
brand of folksy experimentalism has enabled them to bring traditional
styles of music to a modern audience.
Enough information! When the devil are they playing?:
Well you can see them on 03/08/05 as part of The Broadside Festival
at Salhouse Broad, or you can catch the band at Cafe Marzano on
04/09/05
I want more dagnamit!:
Then head to the website at speed!
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Quick
quotes
"It's great stuff.....an early music group to keepan eye on"
BBC RADIO 3
"Foot-tapping folk rhythms and baroque ornamentation".
THE TELEGRAPH
"Highly experimental, technically
wonderful....a fantastic and vibrant performance"
TRADITION Magazine
"Deeply entwined in the sound of medieval and traditional folk,
Horses Brawl are giving a 21st century makeover to the dance music
of the past"
BBC Norfolk
"Horses Brawl's music is vibrant, engaging and completely spellbinding.....I
love it, one of the most exciting bands around"
Steafan Hannigan
"A fascinating progression from formal dance music to semi-improvisation
that had the packed audience roaring for more"
fROOTs FORUM Album launch review |
