The Bagpipe Society

Review: Kathryn Tickell and The Darkening - Cloud Horizons

From her first album when she was 16, Kathryn Tickell seemed to arrive on the public stage fully formed as a musician. From those early days she’s always found her own way of expressing herself, while adding significantly to Northumbrian culture. Her back catalogue is huge and varied in the various directions she’s taken her music, to the point that it’s hard now to imagine where Northumbrian traditional music would be without her positive creativity and influence.

Her band, the Darkening, are named after the old Northumbrian word for twilight. Kathryn Tickell (Northumbrian smallpipes, fiddle, vocals), Amy Thatcher (accordion, synth, clogs, vocals), Kieran Szifris (octave mandolin), Joe Truswell (drums, percussion, programming, plus Stef Conner (vocals, lyres, sistrum) and Josie Duncan (vocals, clarsach).

Two thousand years ago Northumbria was a multi-cultural place inhabited by people from - and with far reaching connections - around the known world. The band draw on that history, the legends and the folklore, and the wildness of the place, as the inspiration for the songs and tunes on display here.

So here is yet another excellent Kathryn Tickell collection of music.

Putting aside the place and tradition it emanates from, is it a good album in its own right? Yes, very much so. The songs, tunes and arrangements are assured and beautifully executed. Everything sits alongside everything else within a mature and well-crafted soundscape – with enough to seduce listeners from far beyond the confines of the ‘folk scene’ (whatever that is). A salute to the band too who do a cracking job throughout. I love albums that sell you a bit of what a place and a culture, sounds and feels like. The whole thing is convincingly joyful, by which I mean there’s something woven into the texture of the whole thing that comes from a place where wellbeing and affirmative creativity is deeply understood and valued.

To be honest I’m not much of a fan of Northumbrian Small-pipes, or the Musette de Cour. It’s like someone took all the best bits of what bagpipes with a conical open chanter can do – bend, wail, stretch and generally get close to what a human voice can do - deliberately designed them out and then replaced them with the ability to make a beeping sound. Kathryn Tickell though has, of course, long been able to take the small-pipes to a level where the instrument takes on a whole other being. For example, on the track “Gods of War”, her playing is simply breathtaking, super imaginative and just impeccable.

All in all, a great album by an artist who continues to go from strength to strength by following her instincts.

https://www.kathryntickell.com/ for more information and purchase links.