Murmuration

Coracle are accordionist Paul Hutchinson, formerly of the beloved Belshazzar’s Feast with the late Paul Sartin, plus singer and multi-instrumentalist (nyckelharpa, viola da gamba, hurdy-gurdy, cello…) Anna Tam and clarinettist Karen Wimhurst, with whom Hutchinson worked on the excellent Clarion album, as The Pagoda Project. Together they cast musical light and shade across ten tracks comprising a mixture of ancient dance tunes, ballads and self-penned pieces, such as the opening ‘Swash’ and the later ‘Tender as a Green Leaf in Spring’, written by Wimhurst during that first sun- and birdsong-drenched lockdown. Hutchinson, meanwhile, offers up ‘True Lies Matter’ – originally a reaction to the West’s ignoble evacuation from Kabul, and the closing ‘The Beast’, a rolling-hipped tune mixing hurdy-gurdy, clarinet and accordion.

Elsewhere, you’ll find some Vaughan Williams on ‘Down Ampney’, with words from a 14th-century mystic poet, and a mixture of Williams and Playford’s The Dancing Master on the hard-to-beat pairing of ‘Sine Nomine/Mr Isaac’s Maggot’. Tam’s clear, shining vocal on the Broadside Ballad ‘Golden Glove’ is matched by her viola da gamba and Hutchinson’s moody accordion accompaniment, and she brings the spirit of strident riposte to their account of Harry Cox’s ‘The Undaunted Female’ – complete with gunshots.