Hedera: Hedera Review – Cornwall, Georgia and Bali meet in an exhilarating debut | music

HIdera is a band made up of five tight-knit friends – violinist Lulu Austin, violin/viola player Maisie Britt, violinist/double bassist Beth Roberts, accordionist/harpist Tamsin Elliott, and clarinetist Isis Wolf Light – named after the Latin botanical term for ivy. The group’s debut album combines influences from Bulgaria to Bali, Ireland to Georgia, and establishes its mood from the complex, hypnotic closed groove of its opening track, Sterretjie (named after the Afrikaans word for coastal tern, which also means “little stars”). Brett’s violin conveys the track’s melody to Wolflight’s clarinet and Elliott’s accordion at a bright, sparkling pace.

Many other moments of joy, graceful and springy, lift these 12 tracks. Roberts’s waltz around the Cornish meadow, Mayflies in June, moves from minor key to major key and back again, backed by Eliot’s harpsichord playing. (Elliott similarly impressed on her 2023 Anglo-Egyptian album So Far We Have Come with oud player Tariq Al Azhari.) Sikar Jagat (meaning “flower of the universe” in Balinese) trembles gently on prepared harp and plucked strings, then makes hay with a melody originally written for gamelan; In Shen Khar Vinakhi, a 1,000-year-old Georgian hymn that survived the Soviet purges, the five women’s voices come together in a dense, glowing mass.

Wolf-Light’s woodwind contributions are particularly poignant, often adding tension and sadness. Her clarinet playing in Threnody, a stunning example of taksim (an improvised introduction in traditional Arabic and Middle Eastern music), is a highlight, while the spirit catches her breath at the beginning of Koga Me Mama Rodila, a Bulgarian tune that ends with women humming in unison, then slowly fades into silence. While much music that incorporates global traditions can sap its specificity, this album brilliantly brings his influences together and intensifies their colours. Like its namesake ivy, it clings to what it meets, embraces new places and continues to grow.

Also out this month

PeriantRose Linn-Pearl’s third album, Plant (Recordiau NAWR), named after the Welsh word for children, features Rose Linn-Pearl’s folk-inspired fiddle melodies against husband Dan’s stunning color palette of twisted, processed guitars and Moogs. The mood is one of black magic and gloom. Finn CollinsonByway’s third album (Old School Music) documents travels and songs from across the UK and highlights an instrument that rarely appears in traditional music: the folk recorder. Her gentle calls seem a part of nature on tracks like Tune for a Linnet, strangely wise on The Complaint, and fiercely attentive on Hare for Twenty. PifkinThe (self-edited) Unfurling also explores nature, but to more surprising effect, using the sounds of her violin, organ and electronics to map the Earth’s transitions from winter to spring. Don’t miss her terrifying 12-minute track, My Breath the Sea, all vocals and eerie drones, evoking the journey of the Irish Saints crossing into Scotland by coracle.