SIMON PARSONS is discomfited by an unflichingly negative portrait of motherhood and its trials
Folk album reviews with STEVE JOHNSON: March 18, 2024
Sunderland community soup kitchen, sea mists over East Anglia, and unique north English folk fusion: reviews of Martyn Joseph, Honey and the Bear and Hirondelle
PAUL FOLEY recommends an extraordinary double bill that packs a punch and leaves you reeling
MARY CONWAY is disappointed by a play about AI that results in a deadening disconnect for its audience
SIMON PARSONS applauds an insightful state-of-the-nation play that explores the growing class divide in South Africa
MATTHEW HAWKINS pays tribute to the performance artist and costumier, Leigh Bowery
SIMON DUFF reviews a new composition by German composer and pianist Florian Weber that blurs the line between where improvisation ends and composition begins
New releases from The Jim Mullen Quartet, Caroline Kraabel/John Edwards, and Matthew Muneses/Riza Printup
Martyn Joseph
This is What I Want to Say
(Pipe Records)
★★★
THIS latest album by Welsh singer-songwriter Martyn Joseph takes him on a reflective journey of the last two years since his previous album 1960. Having lost his father and becoming a grandfather and father again, the 11 songs deal with aspects of his own history and the world outside.
The opening song, Folding, uses the Welsh word hiraeth to reflect the sense of longing for a place of home. This theme of welcome runs throughout with Waiting for the Rain that imagines a new kind of home in Wales for those forced to flee conflict in Syria.
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