Tricks of the Trade

There's a rich luxurious feel to the many beautiful instrumental tunes on this debut from John Dipper and Dave Malkin. Dipper's instrument here is the viola d’amore, with seven bowed and seven sympathetic strings, while Malkin's guitar has its own baroque design, and his vocal style on traditional songs such as ‘The King of Poland’ and ‘All Things are Quite Silent’ is strongly reminiscent of Chris Wood.

It's the beautifully realised tune sets such as ‘Ceri's March/Weaver's March’ (inspired by Chris Wood and drawn from Playford's Dancing Master tune collection, respectively) that are the highlights. They are a mix of the duo's originals, with pieces from friends in the US and Québec, where Dipper lived for some years. The polyphonic spree of the viola d’amore is the album's signature tone, and is reminiscent of Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh's hardanger d’amore (as heard in The Gloaming). Dipper's time with the excellent Methera shows its head in the invention and subtlety at play. It puts this duo right up alongside Spiro, Leveret and Tom Kitching's Interloper band as being among the most innovative English tunemakers creating contemporary chamber music from the tradition.