Wavelength

Bene & Cormac are Glaswegian fiddler Benedict Morris, newly anointed as BBC Radio Scotland's Young Traditional Musician of the Year, and Belfast guitarist Cormac Crummey. Wavelength, their Kickstarter-funded debut on disc, showcases a technically tight, texturally eclectic and excitingly contemporary-sounding duo. There's evidence of that throughout, notably so in ‘Vale of Shadows’, which is a jazzy, spaced out, prog rock-laced fantasia bolting a traditional Manx air onto a driving, drum-punctuated firework display by Morris. The piano-led, country-infused vibe of album closer ‘Yellow Jacket’ sounds as if it has been filtered through a jazzy, 1970s American television theme tune. Crummey's delicately pristine guitar takes centre stage for Jens Kommnick's haunting air ‘Teacht an Earraigh’ (The Arrival of Spring), all the more moving for its heart-tugging Appalachian twang. ‘Molly Might Fly’ is an exquisite dialogue-cum-courtship between guitar and violin, full of subtly reciprocated feeling. Assorted paired jigs and reels, borrowed and new, from the likes of Lau's Aidan O'Rourke, Moxie's Ted Kelly and guitarist Mike Vass, showcase the young duo's traditional credentials with scorching vivacity on display from Morris' fiddle, Crummey's guitar nimbly stepping in and out of the limelight to telling effect. They're not quite there yet, but time is on their side (Crummey is 21, Morris 20) and Wavelength promises great things ahead.