Arlet
Album: Clearing
Label: Smugglers
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.arlet.co.uk

Progressive instrumental chamber folk music is quite a label to stick on anything, so I'm glad that the term was spawned by the Penguin Café Orchestra's Geoff Richardson to describe the sound of Arlet rather than me.

Having been a bit of a floating concept, the membership of Arlet has pretty much stabilised into a five piece, Aidan Shepherd, accordion, composer and pretty much band leader, Owen Hewson, clarinet, Rosie Holden, violin, Ben Insall, guitar and Thom Harmsworth, euphonium and how can you not enjoy a band with a euphonium?

As you can probably imagine by now a key aspect of "Clearing" is the composition and arrangements which lean towards prog rock, retaining that quintessential Englishness that was more noticeable in the Canterbury aspects of that genre, occasionally drifting towards psyche.

Personally I found "Clearing" was a little too full on for a single sitting, but that seems to be more a threshold issue with me than the album per se as starting it at roughly the point of the b-side produces a pretty valid side of music.

Arlet do not totally float my boat, there are times where they are more musicians musicians rather than reaching out to a wider audience and in truth there is nothing wrong with that, but it does come with dangers of the niche. Ultimately "Clearing" is a collection of fine instrumentals. I'm sure this will appeal to many many, I can see and hear that there is much about this album that others will get more than I and there is much to indulge in and enjoy.

Neil King