Lummen

An album of depth and soul, this is an impressive debut for Sirus. There are strong influences from Scandinavia (the sound of fiddles and lilting melodies feature throughout) mixed with soft French harmonies and more sharply angular Hungarian influences. There's an earthiness notable in the opening ‘Niké’ and later ‘Louise’ that define possibly the best of the collection here. Each track is dedicated to friends or familiar objects (described in the liner notes), which you hear in the warmth that permeates the entire album.

The four musicians – from Sweden, France and Hungary – form a tight quartet that produce some fine performances. There's variety in ‘Harald’, with its sparing opening before it opens out into something close to a dance. Then, aptly named ‘Mazurka des Adieux’ takes you east with the lilts, decorations, peaks and troughs of the melodic lines that prepare for the Eastern harmonies of ‘Nestor’. It is an impressive debut, then, from a bold new quartet – one to watch.