Au Cube

The latest release from the prolific Scots folk singer Alasdair Roberts is a live recording documenting gigs he played at the end of 2017 with the French traditional vocalists known as Tartine de Clous, accompanied by Roberts' long-term collaborator Neil McDermott on fiddle. They all work brilliantly well together, somehow managing to sound both well-practised yet utterly spontaneous. ‘Tout en Me Promenant’ is a very convincing opener. Roberts plays a subtly amplified electric guitar, his nimble lines sounding oddly West African alongside McDermott's fiddle and the French trio's sinewy modal singing.

Harmonising together is these three Frenchmen's pain et beurre; the swelling voices of Geoffroy Dudouit, Thomas Georget and Guillaume Maupin provide a beautiful warmth on a cover of Anne Briggs' ‘Go Your Way’, and the French-accented English gives the song a playful charm. The unaccompanied modal call-and-response singing of ‘Je Vous ai Menti Souvent’ is closer to Tartine de Clous’ starker traditional sound, which can be heard on the recordings on their Bandcamp page. The album paces its changes of mood and idiom very organically, generously passing the baton from singer to singer. There's a real lightness of touch here: the whole thing feels like a wonderfully synchronous singaround at a folk club.