Other Reviews

28/02/2010

Shipwrecks And Static

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Inge Thomson

Foghorns and lilting seas; wind catching in the sails, the promise of land on the horizon. Somehow Inge Thomson manages to capture all the essence of nautical life on Shipwrecks And Static, but the listener is left wondering how when this is not a typically ‘folk’ album, though she may have you fooled by the album opening. Nevertheless, there’s nothing overtly hornpipe, there’s no bereft maiden waiting for her sailor.

Instead, it’s the shimmering electronica of the sea in ‘Tin Man’, it’s the feel of the sun on your skin courtesy of ‘John’.
And then there’s the instrument which is somehow inexplicably married to the sea in the mind: the accordion. And her playing of which Thomson is famed and the basis of her inclusion in the Karine Polwart Band, Harem Scarem and numerous other musical entities.

The accordion sighs in and out of each track, sometimes mournfully wheezing underneath neat electronic samples, like ‘Where Do I Sign?’, and sometimes playfully punctuating, like ‘Girl With A Swan’s Head’.

The latter of which must be deemed album highlight. With its industrial factoryism and buzzing interference, it’s like two engineers furiously trying to repair a faulty connection to restore their mechanical arm back to functionality. In the interim, the arm is psychotic and flailing. An unusual scenario, but a very unusual song.

In fact, Shipwrecks And Static should probably carry a warning sticker, for the imagined scenes that come to mind are potent and peculiar – as is the music, it should be stated. Those of a nervous disposition would undoubtedly be whisked to a medieval underworld in ‘Scoundrel Clouds’, thanks to the eeriness of the Armenian British Council choir, recorded in an ancient monastery carved into a hillside, it might be added.

Shipwrecks And Static is a compelling, unsettling compendium of sounds and senses. How Inge Thomson can better this is uncertain.

Sophie Parkes