Dreamers' Circus

Second Movement

(Go)

The Scandinavian trio Dreamers' Circus have been turning heads with their perfect synthesis of traditional, baroque and chamber music - they won a standing ovation as an unscheduled support act at Celtic Connections this year - and this second album will surely spread the word of their brilliance further. Between them Ale Carr, Rune Tonsgaard Sorensen and Nikolaj Busk play a small orchestra of instruments and they're selectively assisted by a three-strong choir and a string quartet here, but the essence of their music is a clarity - and often simplicity - of ideas that they develop with virtuosity, deep feeling, marvellous strength of character, and a fantastic collective ear for arrangement and texture. Their take on a Bach prelude is as joyfully musical as the opening, rootsy-and-then-some Folkrotsvalsen, and while the first 10 tracks might almost be viewed as an extended overture to the epic Fragments Of Solbyn, where they really cut loose, they're also perfectly formed miniatures full of musicality, yearning, drama and downright moreishness.

Rob Adams