Harbottle & Jonas - Wild Goose (Brook View Records)
Release Date: Out Now
Apologies everyone, I'm a little late with this one but I assure you it's worth the wait. Devon based duo Harbottle & Jonas are becoming unnervingly reliable at producing gorgeous folk albums that blend reworkings, covers and original tunes in such a way that you can't tell the difference. 'Wild Goose' is another collection of beautiful songs but this time they are all Harbottle & Jonas compositions starting with 'Carry On You Fisherman', a track which instantly draws you into a different world through the rolling piano chords and undulating melodies crashing upon the shore. 'Loki' follows next with a more country tinged vibe as the urgent finger picking and steady beat creates a sense of bristling energy and excitement that would do well cinematically.
The album's title track, 'Wild Goose', finds Freya Jonas at her vocal best creating a wistful, misty moor vibe with softness and warmth wrapped up in a bow of loss and regret - it really is a voice you can get lost in. Since the arrival of the couple's wee one, 'Travelling Family Band' must be autobiographical and the sense of pride, happiness and purpose is so tangible mingled in with the fiddle notes and strummed guitar notes. The honky-tonky piano of 'God's Idea' is oddly comforting, like a sound from your youth coming back through the years to reconnect you, but as the song swells the piano is wrapped in a woolen blanket of melodies and comfort.
'As I Walk Into The Day' is a gorgeous, sundowner of a song with lazily rippling guitar notes played like the last dappled sunbeams on the grass with slithering violin notes wafting up to the sky like the first smoke of an evening fire. Rousing you from the end of day malaise and in to the night comes 'I Am The Captain Of My Soul' with its sea shanty vocal harmonies and a fresh sense of energy. The album finishes (all too soon) with 'Where Do You Stand?' making further use of that stunning piano full of reverb and resonance before swelling in to a fitting end to a stunning album. This is the kind of album you can lose yourself in so I suggest you do just that once you've turned off all devices and shut the world out. You won't regret it.
More information: https://www.facebook.com/HarbottleandJonas
Live Dates:
13th July - St. Mary's, Totnes