Rebec
Album: Ayres That Meads And Pastures Fill
Label: Epona
Tracks: 12
Website: http://www.eponarecords.com

Rebec was a duo comprising (songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist) Robert Cross and (player of mostly reed instruments and occasional vocalist) Michael Billington. They frequented the English-music circuit some 25 years ago purveying their own rather quirky blend of folk- and early-music-influenced English Pastoral that owed not a little to the Amazing Blondel of the start-of-the-70s but with more than a soupçon of Dr Strangely Strange or Tir Na Nog in the mix there too maybe. They would've been a bit of an anachronism in either time-frame, methinks, but an appealing one nonetheless. The salient point is that for some reason or other Rebec never actually got around to recording their music at the time, and therefore this release is somewhat of a curio in that it has only been now, through the interim advancement of technology, that Rebec's two members have been able to come together "on record", laying down their respective parts (Michael in England, Robert in New Zealand) remotely over a two-year period, with further creative augmentation from Roger Child (viola da gamba) and other guest musicians playing violin, cello and clarinet (though interestingly enough, the rebec itself does not actually appear in the otherwise exhaustive register of musical instruments used on the recording!).

What of Rebec's music? Well, for a start it's not at all the Blondel clone that the above comparison might imply, although there are distinct shades of the "courtly-medieval-troubadour" mode on pieces like Lament For A Season and the renaissance tripping recorders-and-lute gallantry of Youth Have Pride. Robert's song structures aren't necessarily contiguous with early-music models either - again, not a bad thing by any means - but often rather closer to wyrd-folk like COB (Life's Game, which incidentally features the decidedly non-period tones of the bowed psaltery and kalimba). For much of the time, convenient opportunity has been taken to flesh out the duo sound with a significant quotient of additional instrumental lines, but care has been taken to ensure that textures aren't swamped and the evident joy of the music-making (even at a remove) is certainly there in the recording.

What could easily have sounded out of place, out of time and even over-pretentious instead emerges as endearing, and quite often more than mildly intriguing. One or two of the songs may have a slight air of the unfinished opus, and one or two passages of singing sound a touch mannered or contrived, even off-kilter, but these are forgivable lapses indeed given the trials and tribulations of getting this recording together. Rebec's music may not be of "great lost discovery" status, but it's nevertheless an experience I'm very glad to have undergone, and I shall be returning to the album without a doubt.

David Kidman