Cole & Van Dijk
Album: Sins of a Li'l Later Kiss
Label: Treeskin Music
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.coleandvandijk.com/

This duo, based in Brisbane, Australia, comprises guitarist Jevan Cole and fiddler Jan Van Dijk; they've inhabited the fringes of the trad folk scene in SEQ for over 20 years. Their debut album Tunes Of A Curly Nature, which came out a few years back, invited comparisons with Swarbrick & Carthy, and while there are undeniably similarities, notably in the evident close sympathy between the two musicians (manifest in the way they clearly listen to each other) and their propensity for clever, intricate and yet reflective showmanship, there is also a high degree of originality in this duo's own compositions, which take the framework of traditional melodies and then proceed to transport

or convert them through the construction of adventurous harmonic or rhythmic extrapolations into something quite special and individual.

The aforementioned debut album, while very impressive in terms of musicianship and accomplishment, had as its Achilles heel a certain tendency to operate all on one level of invention, with little in the way of contrast in mood, attack or dynamic from one self-penned tune to another albeit commendable in its introspective thoughtfulness. I feel they've conquered that problem to a large extent with album number two, which again takes as its springboard for invention the dance music of western Europe, in particular that of the UK, and informs this palette with gestures and flavours of 20th century classical music (especially eastern European models such as Bartók, Janá?ek et al.).

This time round, the duo incorporate the tentative sounds of five-string and tenor banjo into their own personal armory, and also bring in a select few guest musician friends on piano, organ, cello, accordion and percussion, while the tunes themselves feel less self-conscious, and thus more organic (and satisfyingly so), than those on their debut release (itself very accomplished however).

The accompanying booklet gives abundant information regarding the inspiration and sources for the various tunes, and aside from a south-western-English morris tune, a pair of American old-timey numbers, a brace of Northumbrian pipe tunes, some slightly twisted Irish jigs and Arthur McBride (learnt from Swarb & Carthy's Prince Heathen LP!), all the tunes here were composed by either Cole or Van Dijk.

Perhaps most typical of the duo's invigorating, close-knit approach to tunesmithery is the epic set that comes smack in the middle of the disc, close on eight minutes long but not outstaying its welcome at all, and the delightful "slip jig of sorts", Menagerie, which displays a significantly "curly nature"! The scintillating set of jigs (track 9) provides another highpoint of finger-blistering technique. But in truth, there's never really any dull moment in the disc's 48 minutes, and as all-instrumental albums go this is a bit of a rarity in that it's one I could easily keep in the CD player and listen to in a continuous sitting either at home or on a car journey.

David Kidman