Haddo
Album: Borderlands
Label: Lulubug
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.haddofolk.com

"Borderlands" is an album that comes with an impressive pedigree. It's predecessor, "Homecoming" was nominated for instrumental album of the year, back in 2012, when it was first released, Half of the duo, Will Pound, is the current Fatea Instrumentalist of the year, and Nicky Pound is no slouch in that department when you consider that she is a heavily in demand session fiddle/viola player in addition to her Haddo role. In addition we also get to hear her sing on this album and immediately find ourselves asking the questions, why not before and why not more?

I guess the answer to both questions in the same, when you have instruments that are capable of expressing so much, why would you need to add words over the top. It's definitely a difficult answer to contradict. For the record Nicky's delightful vocals get their outing on the traditional murder ballad, "Two Sisters" and happily conform to the cliché that the happier the delivery a folk song sounds, the more likely it is to have a body count, despite that contradiction or perhaps because of it Nicky's voice really nails both song and tune into your head.

As with its predecessor, "Borderline" takes in a number of musical styles from both sides of the English/Scots border, including a number of different morris styles and an odd foray into blues that sees Will reaching for his gob iron, performing the majority of the album on his trusted melodeon.

One of the things I like about traditional music is that names change depending on how you encounter a song, for example, album opener, "Ampleforth" is so named because of it's association with a sword dance from the village of the same name, where as I first encountered it as a Scottish tune, "The Old Wife Of Coverdill" on an album of 'Celtic' tunes.

"Borderlands" is a masterclass of how to tackle an instrumental album, it's so rich in times and textures, it's an album that gives you a chance to breathe rather than having a frenetic pace carry you through to an exhausting end. Talking of class, a quick nod to one of Nicky's pu[ils, William Nyssens who manages to get part of his GCSE course work onto the album.

"Borderlands" is an album that lives to its pedigree. This is a class album and one that reminds us that sometimes words aren't required to give meaning and that instruments can express so much, so well. (That said if Nicky ever took to recording an album of songs, the reviews queue would be quite long.)

Neil King