Carolan

Simon Mayor started out as a guitarist and fiddler before emerging as a pre-eminent mandolin player and composer. With Carolan he deploys all his considerable multi-instrumental skills to pay tribute to the celebrated Irish baroque harper and composer, Turlough O’Carolan. Some of these tunes will be familiar from folk club sessions, many musicians having been introduced to Carolan's repertoire (as Mayor himself was) through the Irish band Planxty, who helped popularise this beguiling music.

The 14 pieces here are given full-bodied new arrangements by Mayor, multi-tracking instruments to create a virtual string quartet. Mayor himself contributes not only mandolin but mandola, mandocello, violin, viola and guitar. Florence Petit adds violoncello while Mayor's long-time partner, Hilary James, provides double bass, mandobass and bass guitar, as well as vocals on ‘The Snowy-Breasted Pearl’. With its Italianate complexity and relaxing flow it's tempting to imagine this early 18th-century music playing on the laptops of legions of people working from home. But forget work! Carolan invites us to sit back and delight in its mellifluous sound.