Reviews

Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver
Album: Hinterland
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 9
Website: https://www.gerrydiver.com/

Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver, are known for honouring and being influenced by both English and Irish folk traditions. Diver says "Folk music isn't static - it stretches, bends and warps with the world around it. That's what excites me - the freedom to reshape it, make it raw and real and unrestrained. " "This album is a mix of themes, often drawn from the natural world and the people who inhabit it," says Knapp. "We wanted to explore both what we know and what lies beyond our understanding in nature and history."

Hawk & Crow opens the album with a statement of intent. With impressionistic plucked fiddles, found sounds and percussion leaving the barest hint of a tune behind Kanpp's voice this is contemporary folk at its best.

When the extraordinary Train Song was released as a single we said, "With lyrics written by Lisa on a train journey back into London this is a vivid evocation of the potential for riding on a train to be a meditative experience as she recounts the passing sites over a backing that has a heartbeat drum pattern that drifts you into the unreal place that watching the world pass by the window often suggests. Remarkable and compelling listening" And it still is.

Starr Carr is almost moder classical music with programmed keyboards, what appears to be a sampled fiddle and a violin line that is wholly Irish in sound. Knapp's vocals drift across the stereo spectrum (listen to it on headphones for the best effect) and drifts into an almost techno drum pattern at the end. Another totally unexpected song and proof of Diver's assertion that folk doesn't stand still. This is recognisably folk music but using the tools available to it in 2025.

Monaghan Jig Monks Jig Set is an instrumental piece with fiddle leading and plucked violin taking the place where a mandolin might have been in less thoughtful hands. Even when playing something so clearly traditional in make up they are innovating. The traditional ballad I Must Away Love is next and again reflects their intention to make it new and fresh. Mostly Knapp singing unaccompanied with banjo and fiddle giving it and almost Appalachian feel.

Every song on this album is worthy of serious listening. That they have kept it to 9 pieces is a good thing as it does take that serious intense listening to fully experience the depths that Diver and Knapp are offering. Long Lankin's jazz drums sit at odds with the rest of the song but feel exactly appropriate. Penumbra is another instrumental, almost an ambient soundscape that Brian Eno might have produced.

They close with 2 more pieces which are Loving Hannah, a traditionally structured hymn, made fresh with the sounds of the Banjo and pump organ. Lass of Aughrim, the Irish version of The Lass of Roch Royal, builds to the closest they get to a fully arranged song, before gently fading back to a decyaing piano chord.

This is folk music that retains its roots but builds on tradition to create something entirely of the 21st Century, and it is an essential listen for anyone who wants to hear where the outer edges of the folk tradition are today.

Tim Martin

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