The Cauld Wind

Contrary to what you might imagine, the duo of Chris Stout and Finlay MacDonald have not taken their album title from the weather conditions in Shetland at the time of recording but from the traditional name for the border pipes – the cauld wind pipes. That seems entirely appropriate for a bracingly pure collection, which sets out to explore the common ground in the music of the pipes and fiddle whilst allowing the idiosyncrasies of each instrument to flourish. The pair, who’ve now played together for over 15 years during parallel careers playing with Catriona McKay, Fiddlers’ Bid and even Bryan Adams and P Diddy, have mostly taken tunes from the pipe tradition. But their own melodies here are warm and embracing: ‘Fionn’s’, an air composed for the birth of MacDonald’s second son, is a poignant example.

Recorded at Mareel, the new concert hall in Shetland, and with invaluable support from guitarist Ross Martin, the album boasts a vibrantly live sound. ‘Dull and Boring’, an inauspiciously titled tune contributed by Stout, celebrates the twinning of the Perthshire village of Dull with the Oregon town of Boring. For anyone remotely interested in the tradition celebrated and expanded here, neither adjective could feasibly be applied to anything at all on this record.