Simon Thacker & Justyna Jablonska

Karmana

Slap the Moon Records

FOR the debut recording by a duo of guitar and cello, there is an awful lot going on during this album by the entrepreneurial Thacker and Edinburgh-domiciled Polish cellist Jablonska. The pair have been performing together for three years and this set includes one track, with singer and violinist Masha Natanson,culled from their exploration of the music of the Roma people that was part of this year's Made in Scotland showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe.

The album's titular six part suite, however, looks further East for its inspiration and recalls Thacker's earlier Indo-Western music, although relying on just the two string players seems sonically-limiting for its half-hour duration by comparison, despite their virtuosity.

To judge by his liner notes, however, Thacker the composer is more excited by the sonic experimentation evident on Ruaigidh Dorchadas/The Highland Widow's Lament, which features vocals from Karine Polwart, and is his response to the result of the independence referendum. The copious use of backwards sound sampling (as demonstrated by Hendrix and The Beatles in ye olde analogue days) may be some sort of political comment then. Or it may not, and – more seriously – it matters little either way, because the simpler music is the better.

Keith Bruce