Gavin Fairhall Lever

James Patrick Gavin on fiddle and vocals, double bassist Tim Fairhall and Adrian Lever on guitar, vocals, harmonium and piano wrote their eponymous debut over ten days on the Isle of Skye. They then decamped to Julie McLarnon's studio, Analogue Catalogue in Newry, Northern Ireland, to record to analogue tape, capturing the close-knit improvisational nature of their live performances, and to capture a grainy depth of sound too.

Gavin draws on his Basque and Northern Irish heritage for ‘The Basque Set’, which combines the two traditions across a trio of tunes – his own ‘Nahasketa’, the Basque ‘Bok Espok’ and traditional Irish reel ‘Castle Kelly's’ – while Lever, based in Belgrade, brings a propulsive Balkans feel in his guitar work. Cornishman Fairhall evokes his native landscape on ‘Martha by the Loveny’, on which the three meld closely to work as one, the fiddle, guitar and bass circling in a perfectly balanced orbit around the tune. Their playing is nuanced as an ensemble and as soloists, rising wraithlike up through the music. There are songs among the tunes, including the bucolic ‘Flower of the Sun’, and ‘Ann Walker’, inspired by Sally Wainwright's acclaimed TV series Gentleman Jack, but it's instrumentals such as the Dylan Thomas-inspired ‘Dying of the Light’ or the grainy depths of ‘The Block’ that compel the most.