Twelfth Day
Album: Shell Story
Label: Orange Feather
Tracks: 7
Website: http://www.twelfthdaymusic.com/

"Shell Story" is the latest release by Scottish duo Twelfth Day who are Catriona Price [fiddle and vocals] and Esther Swift pedal harp, clarsach and vocals]. Billed as a "mini album" [although it is 42 minutes long !] it consists of three new numbers and remixes of four tracks from their 2014 album "The Devil Makes Three".

Let's start with the new tracks. The album begins with the title track "Shell Story", a gorgeous song which is based on a short story by George McKay Brown in which the widow of a sailor who was lost at sea goes down to the pier every day to feed the seabirds in the hope that her husband will return to her [which he does]. This is a beautiful piece featuring haunting, ethereal harmony vocals from Catriona and Esther over delicately interweaving harp and fiddle. Marvellous stuff.

The second new track is an instrumental called "Face To Face", which was inspired by the Roman god Janus, who had two faces. At nearly seven minutes in length, this is a complex, almost classical composition, with several separate , contrasting themes, all beautifully played. Catriona's fiddle playing is simply stunning, whilst Esther's harp provides the rhythmic heart of the piece.

Track three is another glorious piece, an arrangement of a Schubert Lied ["Romanze"], which Esther used to sing at school. Again, the vocals are simply heavenly and the arrangement by Catriona and Esther is a wonder to behold.

And so to the remixes part of the "mini album". If I am totally honest, I am not a big fan of remixes . My view is that, in most circumstances, the original track is usually how the artist intended to the music to sound, so why change it for the sake of changing it, especially when the music is as beautiful as that made by Twelfth Day ? May be I am just an old fuddy-duddy, who knows?

If, however, remixes are your thing, I am sure that you will find much of interest in these four remixed tracks from "The Devil Makes Three" by Fraction Man, DJ Tudo, The Reverse Engineer and Max Reinhart [the presenter of Late Junction on BBC Radio 3] respectively.

The DJ Tudo remix of "Magic Circles" features additional bass and Brazilian percussion.

In conclusion, the three "new" tracks are absolutely superb and would have made a brilliant EP.

As for the remixes, I am afraid they are not my cup of tea.

Peter Cowley