Fraser Fifield & Graeme Stephen

Fraser Fifield & Graeme Stephen

Esotero

(Tanar)

In his liner note, Fraser Fifield revels in the freedom he and guitarist Graeme Stephen feel from not having to categorise their music. That's easy for him to say. For those who are unfamiliar with Fifield, he's a piper from the Aberdeenshire tradition who has also mastered the low whistle and soprano saxophone, in a way that allows his playing to flow from traditional-sounding airs into the realms of jazz and fairly free improvisation. In Graeme Stephen, he has the ideal partner and, over 16 years, they have forged an understanding that means wherever one goes the other will join him intuitively, be that into a moving lament or the kind of electric guitar and Border pipes ferment witnessed on Chase It Catch It that, if he were that sort of bloke, might see Fifield with his foot up on a monitor, posing like a heavy metal hero. At heart, Fifield is a melodist and his gifts as such are here in abundance - filed under adventure.

Rob Adams