The Halton Quartet
Album: Based On True Events
Label: HQR
Tracks: 9
Website: http://www.thehaltonquartet.com

The Halton Quartet is the happy marriage of two established Scottish duos, who met aboard a motor vessel, the Halton, during the 2007 Orkney Folk Festival. Angus Lyon (accordion) & Ruaridh Campbell (fiddle) had by then released a couple of acclaimed duo CDs, while guitarists Adam Bulley and Chas Mackenzie (together better known as Wingin' It) had scooped numerous awards over the previous three years.

Based On True Events is a literal description of the music within, it being a collection of nine original collaborative compositions by the four musicians, each telling a true tale, whether of an event or a friend or of a personal experience. Anything from a memorable night spent jamming with world musicians (Washington Square Park) and a bizarre UFO sighting (The Balkeerie Lights) to the tragic loss of a friend climbing the French Alps during a bad storm (Triger parts 1 & 2). The musical language of these essays ranges across the genres, with the predominant mode a cross between the European contemporary classical and New York-style jazz, with heavy influences from Argentinian tango and improvised folk fusion.

There's an enviable lightness of touch to the playing of all four musicians, but the guitar and mandolin work is especially dextrous and the inventiveness of the interplay is quite breathtaking. But I can't escape the feeling that at times the quartet is trying too hard to be deliberately and cleverly eclectic, and by so doing is having their fun at the expense of communicating their own musical in-jokes to their audience. Listeners will I'm sure find tracks like Triger part 2 and Burger The Rabbit quite exciting, sometimes cheekily exhilarating, while The Violin Maker provides a sophisticated and heartfelt interlude, The Balkeerie Lights verges neatly towards funky newgrass and the finale Then And Now combines heart and soul with imagination and polish. And the contributions of percussionist Iain Sandilands and bassist James Lindsay are very fine, superbly dovetailing in with the quartet's own collective brio and panache.

However, despite the undoubted musical variety that's on ready display, one can have too much of a good thing and tracks like The Good Ship Halton steer perilously close to self-referential noodling and thus the whole album may not be ideal for listening all the way through in one sitting.

David Kidman