ALBUM REVIEW
Songs of Separation Collective ‘Songs Of Separation’ (Navigator Records)
This folk record is a bright collection of whispers sang from ten women, most of them defined by a strong Celtic identity in their style. It feels as if they sang for the departed, and for those who are held, unavoidably restrained in chagrin for those lost, somewhere far in the void, cold soil or else, but not only. For the theme weaved of separation is not just of one kind, instead, one we all hold inside, a subdued melancholy, yes, that very Celtic touch, joyous at times, and trembling, the voices are strong, deep and worked from within, erupting in harmony: Are you gone to heaven or else to a foreign land, to fight a war, to die on a dark sand?
We are immersed in celebratory tracks, replenished with courage and strength, in a world of legends, kings, may they be modern or traditional, plunged in a gripping musical assortment of folk, tribal chanting, classical and sometimes ever so slightly, jazz.
The chants throughout the album are upliftingly beautiful: The women are covered in thick skins, wild in their kingdom, in the corner of their eyes shines a moody yet hopeful justice: Hold life together despite the surrounding absent ghosts.
If you let them fly these artists would stumble into the world of trespassed things, eerie presence and languid spirits who, adorned of their best attire worthy of kings and angels, would peek into our world with great envy.
They fight the elements, the wars, the invaders, natural death or exile, as fierce as amazons. The compilation is ethereal and enchanting, a long fairy tale told inside a lonesome cottage on the cliff of a wild countryside.
We are compelled to shake our bodies in a gentle post dramatic shock as if immersed with a sudden love and peace and a feeling of great togetherness while listening to the ‘songs of separations’.
Words: Ayfer Simms
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