Zithers

Andrew Cronshaw's presence as a player, writer and critic has been a significant part of the folk and world music scenes for decades. His work with the group SAN has delivered a string of compelling works, but here on Zithers, he focuses on a solo set drawn from a widely cast net of cultures and traditions, employing only two unfretted zithers – a 74-string one he bought in the 60s, and a 44-string marovantele, a unique one-off made by Finnish luthier Kimmo Sarja.

The music is beautiful, with all but one track (‘Inchcolm’) recorded live, unaccompanied and without overdubs. He opens with a Hogmanay song, ‘The Year That's Awa’, followed by a fleeting pair of Finnish tunes clocking in at just over 90 seconds. There's an 18th-century air from the Highlands, then a setting of a song from St Kilda – ‘Mo Ghaol Òigear A'Chùil Duinn (My Darling is the Brown-Haired Young Man)’ – and some variations on the powerful incest ballad, ‘Lucy Wan’. Cronshaw's arrangements and performance at once get to the bones and sinew of a tune, while at the same time raising them up via the delicacy and clarity of his playing. Meditative, expansive, quietly authoritative, Zithers is a quiet gem.