Tir Eolas
Album: Stories Sung. Truths Told
Label: Self Released
Tracks: 10
Website: http://www.tireolas.co.uk

London-based five-piece Tir Eolas describe themselves as an "eclectic alternative-folk group", The name may or may not mean "knowledge of the land" (that supposition arises out of a translation given on the website of a publishing house of that name). Anyway, the band Tir Eolas was formed five years ago while busking on London streets, and has since built a firm following with live performances including Kings Place, Sage Gateshead, Bestival and the BBC Proms. It might thus come as a surprise that Stories Sung, Truths Told is their debut recording, and the truth to be told here is that it sounds like anything but a debut offering; there's a distinctive stylish confidence on display, in tandem with an eagerly experimental demeanour to the playing.

I understand that the album is a culmination of the band's work from the past five years, and yet it retains a potent sense of unity whether or not the inspiration be audibly tradition-based. In fact, it's original writing that in the end forms its core, in the sense that five of its songs were composed by the band's guitarist/singer Laura Snowden and two by percussionist/singer Ruairi Glasheen. These seven songs run the gamut of mood and expression, combining powerful traditional-style storytelling (notably on Aida and Morven Larry) with more personal reflections (the enigmatic, lyrical The Call).

The more traditionally-inclined pieces seem to come off especially well, with distinctively shaped female vocal lines that harken back in style and poised, accomplished delivery to 70s folk-bands like Trees and Mellow Candle, whereas there's shades of The Equation perhaps in other songs of more contemporary import. Instrumentally, the band's accomplishments are legion and the playing thoughtful and wholly confident, paying close observance to the demands of each song. Telling, if commendably restrained use of electric guitar textures complement the signature dark viola (Georgie Harris) and guitar/flute/bass/percussion combination - particularly effectively, I thought, on the slightly extended (six-minute) opus Your Time Will Come, which also sports an unsettling, brooding florid classical-Spanish guitar interlude.

There's also a limited use of guest musicians (two violins and a cello) during the course of four of the tracks. Elsewhere, in the assured vocal arrangements, there's an intermittent air of fussiness, even preciousness on the disc's title song, but nothing to get worked up about, especially considering that the individual and combined singing is always so persuasively managed. Laura also contributes a limpid (quite Karine-Polwart-like) arrangement of Robert Burns' Though He Has Left Me; there's also a deliciously fleet-footed instrumental medley that marries a Brendan Power tune to two by flautist/singer Philippa Mercer; the remaining offering is a driven, atmospheric rendition of She Moved Through The Fair.

Finally, the quality of the production (courtesy of Jim Moray) is first-class, its precision and assured passion complementing and reflecting those qualities both in the group's performances and the truthful, full-bodied recording. Let's hope it's not going to be another five years before Tir Eolas come up with a followup record.

David Kidman