Talisk

Beyond

Talisk Records

Multi-award-winning Glasgow-based instrumental folk/trad trio Talisk’s second album finds them stepping up the pace, if that was indeed possible, and increasing their sonic palette while also at times playing with gorgeous reflection. And although taking tradition-influenced adventure onto the next level – and the next – is their aim, there are passages of rugged fiddling especially that make it clear where this music originates.

Essentially a concertina, fiddle and guitar team, with Graeme Armstrong here replacing original guitarist Craig Irving, they make a formidable sound as Mohsen Amini’s concertina produces hefty chords more in keeping with a cathedral organ and Hayley Keenan’s fiddle makes the broadest and boldest of bow strokes while both also negotiate the nimblest of riffs and motifs.

Grit Orchestra conductor-arranger Greg Lawson adds violin and viola parts and Farewell, which begins with a simple guitar line before Keenan and Amini engage in springy collusion, ends with a massed choir of Scots trad pals wordlessly singing Armstrong’s opening theme. Big and powerful though the recorded sound gets, however, there’s probably little of this that the trio can’t reproduce in their passionate, exciting, high-energy gigs. What lies beyond Beyond will be interesting for sure.

Rob Adams