Frey

Hot on the heels of the release of Solana’s Mirage (reviewed in June 2022, #178) comes this haunting solo album from that adventurous Bristol-based band’s co-founder. Accordion, harp, flute and whistle player Tamsin Elliott, who wrote all the music on this rewarding and richly textured album in the aftermath of a couple of years of quite severe health issues, is joined by brother Rowan as well as the redoubtable Rowan Rheingans on fiddle and viola, Sid Goldsmith on cittern and double bass, oud player Soufian Saihi and percussionist Ricardo de Noronha, for a highly personal yet universally resonant album that ‘explores themes of limbo, pain, healing and acceptance’ alongside wider themes of societal disconnection and eco-destruction.

That may sound a tad forbidding but, while there are indisputably sombre moments (track titles include ‘Lament’ and ‘When the Times Darken’), the album’s overall effect is more akin to a comforting sound blanket in which the listener can wrap themselves. It’s a very human record in which the many and various cross-cultural influences, notably Iberian, North African and English dance rhythms, magnificently coalesce to transcend hardship and distress.