Carolyn Hillyer & Nigel Shaw

A strangely beautiful entanglement of soul-filled melodies and songs drawn from medieval, faerie and ancient pagan worlds. The music ranges from delicate flute pieces through graceful and shadowy songs to strong tribal acoustic rhythms and unusual chants… all braided into a dream of blessed earth and heathen folk.

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£10.00£13.00

We created this as part of a double music project, along with the faster dance music companion album, Riven Outside. Our aim with the Riven project was to bring together two diverse styles of music with which we had been working during the previous ten years: as a duo and with a full band of musicians. This work consists of music and songs composed and recorded by the two of us, a strangely beautiful entanglement of soul-filled melodies and songs drawn from medieval, faerie and ancient pagan worlds.

The music ranges from delicate flute pieces through graceful and shadowy songs to strong tribal acoustic rhythms and unusual chants. Here are strands of haunting melody, ancient ballad, lively magic, soft lament, powerful prayer and robust drinking song, all braided into a dream of blessed earth and heathen folk. Here are memories of the sacred dance of salmon river, ragged hill, twisted hazel, greenwood glade and desert canyon.

With wooden flutes, traditional whistles, frame drums, djembe, darabouka, dulcimer (bowed and plucked), percussion, piano, keyboards and the singing voice.

TRACKS: The Lonesome Boatman, Strange Enough Deep Enough, Be Wary of Lovers Who Come From the Greenwood, Rain, The Mead Bench, The Wisdom of You, The Ragged Megs, The Riven Stone, The Mudhead Clowns, The Carved Scavenger and four blessings to the seasons.
Album length: 73 minutes. Released in 2000.