Kris Drever & Eamonn Coyne
Album: Mareel(EP)
Label: Reveal
Tracks: 5
Website: http://www.krisdrever.com

Do Kris Drever and Eamonn Coyne ever rest? In between playing with Lau and producing the last Breabach record Drever has got together once again with Coyne, who's found time away from Treacherous Orchestra and Salsa Celtica, to put together another collection of tunes to follow up last year's excellent Storymap album. The main focus of the EP is a re-recorded version of Drever's 'Wintermoon' which first featured on Lau's classic 2009 album, Arc Light. Where the original is brooding and atmospheric the re-working has been lifted into dance floor territory by Coynes' banjo and some glorious female backing vocals courtesy of Shetland natives Louise Thomason and Freda Leask. Indeed, the EP was recorded with a host of guests at the Mareel cinema and arts centre on Shetland from which it also takes its name. Of the rest of the EP 'Isles Tunes' starts out as a peaceful and considered session strum before charging off into a rip-roaring banjo led floor filler while a take on Ewan Macoll's 'Moving On Song' recalls it's classic join-in chorus with its tale of the woes faced by travellers. Three Jigs-ish is yet another pub fireside toe-tapper and the 5 tracks are rounded off with 'Oot In Da Harbour' which is synonymous with the Shetland Isles and features a tremendous plonking piano backing.

For a duo that set the bar so unbelievably in everything they do it's incredible that they continue to churn out consistently brilliant releases year after year. The completists will love it just as much as anyone new to traditional music as 'Mareel' stands shoulder to shoulder with the rest of this duos vast and wonderful back catalogue.

Rob Fearnley