Sròmos

Piper and flute player with popular Scottish band Breabach, James Duncan Mackenzie comes from Back on the Isle of Lewis in the Western Isles. He grew up seeing the still-present ruins of homes and townships that were cleared in the 19th century to make way for sheep farming and deer forests. One of the these townships, Sròmos, is the inspiration for the collection of tunes that make up this, Mackenzie's second solo album and, as the very informative liner notes indicate, there's often rather more weighty history behind them than their amiable mood might suggest.

Joined by a team of musicians from Scotland's traditional music and jazz scenes, Mackenzie presents music that dances, swaggers, rocks and rolls, with both acoustic and electric instruments adding atmosphere: foreboding in the driving pipe tune ‘Loch Langavat’, chirpy in the fiddle-and flute-led ‘Blue Men of the Minch’, with its firm backbeat. The final tune set is introduced by an ominous rhythm whose light, simple figures are enriched by inventive keyboard harmonies.