Once again, Thrill Jockey play host to the Appalachian folk-influenced duo House and Land, and here they take seven songs of various origins and imbue them with a sense of their own characters. The songs, being the age that they are, are far from feminist tracts and it feels as though Sarah Louise and Sally Anne Morgan wish to reclaim them, to try to infuse them with something that will resonate in our modern world, yet still retain something of their old-world charm.
The other interesting thing is Sarah’s use of electric guitar on some songs that really does bring things kicking and screaming up to date. Their voices are interesting pairing; one has a classic folk sound, strident and almost harsh, and the other is sweeter, sometimes adding some necessary honey among the attractive harmonies.
Banjo-led opener “Two Sisters” evokes a rocking chair on the front porch of a mountainside home, far away from the nearest neighbours with the two sisters in question, rocking and singing to themselves for entertainment as all around is lush grass and birdsong. There is some sunshine apparent on “Rainbow ‘Mid Life’s Willows”, but the melancholy tale of an oppressed daughter sounds lonely, with surges of instrumentation like little animals milling around the protagonist’s feet, keeping her company as the menfolk prevent her from breaking out. The guitar in particular is a delight in its reeling busyness, the speed and skill of the playing leading the fiddle on a merry dance that helps to offset the sentiment of the track.
The addition of electric guitar gives “Cursed Soldier” a whole new outlook, while the minimalist tendencies of the harmonium lend the tale of lost love that is ‘”Blacksmith” a real sense of sadness that the shining glockenspiel makes vain attempts to offset. There is distorted electric guitar on “Carolina Lady”, but the duo have chosen to turn this track into an instrumental, and so the fiddle and guitar take the place of vocals, turning it into a modernist slice of widescreen Americana. The two instruments spark off one another, interjecting and jabbing, then leaving a wide-open, sky-filled space in which the listener can wallow. The sense of repetition towards the end lends it a contemporary flavour.
The trajectory that Across The Field takes through the different ages of song is a joyful journey that ends in the recorder-led “Ca The Yowes”. The recorder drifts like pastel hues across a cloudy sky, mimicking birds on the wing, looking down on the local drama unfolding below. The song offers a hint of something beyond the ordinary and then vanishes as the album comes to a halt. It leaves the listener yearning slightly, and in somewhat contemplative mood. House and Land have done lovely things with some old standards and really made them their own, without losing a sense of history. It is a gentle touch that works perfectly.
-Mr Olivetti-
