And if last time around Fragments of Sound was an eclectic collection of trippy, ambient dance instrumentals, this time the focus is more song based and having gathered a collection of guest vocalists, with Nigel Boyd Robinson taking the lions share and doing a sterling job, to add the required lyrical dimension and the result is a wonderfully smooth, pastoral folktronic journey.
The titles and subject matter suggest some very familiar, traditional motifs being played with but it is the reimagining of these standard forms into hazy, drifting post-folk gems that is the real charm of the album. Come Away With Me plays with buoyant east European grooves and Under The Moonlight revels in 60’s folk revivalism and then you have songs such as Rambling Man which somehow captures a strange, smokey 80’s Hall and Oates pop vibe whilst still staying well within the albums remit. For me it is The River’s Daughter that is the highlight of the collection, a mercurial blend of The Incredible String Band and the bucolic pop of The Lilac Time.
It’s a fantastic collection of music, it shows just one future path of folk toward the potential of the new roots sunrise. Folk music has been with us since the first proto-human banged a stick on a fallen tree trunk to create rhythm and then stuck his finger in his ear to better harmonise with it, and so its reinvention every generation or so is only natural, necessary even. What The Raven and The Rose does so well is help keep the evolutionary forces at work, it may not seem like much but it is the most vital job in the musical landscape.