The Lines We Draw Together

The Sheffield fiddler, banjoist and songwriter taps into the rich new vein of folk music with theatre, historical memoir, poetry and classical music that Karine Polwart has recently mined with her Wind Resistance shows and album. Indeed, Liam Hurley – cowriter of the script for Rheingans' stage show – also worked on Polwart's show.

Rheingans' one-woman theatre piece, Dispatches on the Red Dress, chronicles her grandmother's experiences in 1940s Germany. This solo debut from a musician usually associated with the bands Lady Maisery, The Rheingans Sisters and Songs of Separation is an extension of that live show. It's spacious, elegant stuff. Drawing not only on family memories of war, but also the diaries of Etty Hillesum, a Dutch woman killed at Auschwitz, sparse existential meditations are complemented by delicate, rhythmic melodies.

Rheingans is unafraid to pause and let the silence in, or the birdsong, or the sound of children on a street outside. When a particularly fine turn of phrase or musical hook appears, she will repeat it, loop it, sit with it and let its magic infuse the wider song. She is beautifully assisted by a host of guests, notably clarinettist Jack McNeill, bassist Michele Stodart and percussionist Laurence Hunt, whose light, brushed and insistent rhythmic accompaniment is the making of one of the standout tracks, ‘Traces’.