Bright Field

Bright Field is a strong follow-up to Rowan and Anna Rheingans’ excellent 2015 album Already Home(a Top of the World in #114). On their last album, they drew on Occitan and Norwegian music, both of which carry over into Bright Field. It features superb playing from both sisters on violin and viola, and they’re handy on the banjo and English concertina too. It's a largely self-penned set, aside from Xavier Vidal's contribution of a bourrée, and a version of ‘Lo Segoner’ from south-west France. The opener, ‘Glattugla’, is a powerful and arresting tune of Anna's, inspired by winters in Trondheim, Norway; she also sings lead vocal on the beautiful ‘Appel’, set to some spare and lovely baritone banjo. ‘This Forest’ is flecked with folkloric, mythic animal imagery, set to a fine tune that rolls the song's cyclical narrative on.

Having won the Best Original Track award for ‘Mackerel’ at the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards, they have another potential prizewinner in the closing song ‘Edge of the Field’. They display remarkably fresh and vibrant playing, expanded by a pan-European aesthetic drawn from their travels through Scandinavia, Ireland and France. Brilliantly rendered by producer Dylan Fowler, this is an assured successor to Already Home.