Macmaster/Hay
Album: Hook
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 11
Website: http://www.myspace.com/macmasterhay

This vibrant partnership conjoins the tremendous talents of electro-harp and clarsach supremo Mary Macmaster (The Poozies, Sileas) and inventively empathic (and much-in-demand) percussionist Donald Hay (Shooglenifty), for a second album's worth of experimental yet thoroughly accessible musical adventures. The duo's 2009 CD Love And Reason received deservedly ecstatic reviews, and Hook delivers a similarly invigorating sequence of instrumental pieces and songs that once again takes the sound of the harp into what might be termed uncharted territory. This is achieved through the musicians' skilful and boldly imaginative use of timbre and texture to bring an almost cinematic ambience to their expression.

But just as with Love And Reason, the menu is not exclusively instrumental, and the vocal tracks contribute a good number of the album's highlights. The arresting opening piece is a case in point, where a booming bass ostinato figure in the harp both drives and pervades the title number, which is based around a Gaelic song about flirting. Stay With You is an wholly enchanting self-penned collaboration, while I Can't Conceal ingeniously incorporates a sampled reading of a Gaelic poem; the stylish album closer is a perceptive treatment of Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding. The instrumental tracks are no less sparkling or inventive: for example, Lusignac is a brilliantly relaxed revisit of the celebrated Chris Wood composition, and Aird Ranters skips a light fantastic to a Fred Morrison tune. There's also an enterprising medley of Breton tunes, and Stratherrick Sunday brings the cool repose of the hideaway to the landscape. Altogether, Hook is a beguiling and mesmerising disc that inspires and satisfies in equal measure.

David Kidman