WOMAD

Spiro

From United Kingdom

“Unsettling, exhilarating and highly impressive...Fascinating, and I suspect, unique- fRoots.”

Spiro are four musicians from the South West with a contemporary English acoustic sound, they are; Jon Hunt on guitar, Jason Sparkes on Accordion, Alex Vann on mandolin and Jane Harbour on violin.

The band grew out of a healthy Bristol session scene in the mid nineties. They arrived together from different directions, classical, folk, rock. They have made two previous albums, one as the Famous Five and then under their current name, the critically acclaimed "Pole Star". Since their formation in 1993 the band have toured to venues and festivals across Europe including Glastonbury, The Brighton Festival, The Big Chill, The Barbican and the Royal Opera House's Lindbergh Studio with residencies at the Royal Opera House's "Ignite" series and the Royal Festival Hall. They have also worked, as a band and as individuals, with the National Portrait Gallery, Theatre Alibi and Kneehigh Theatre Company and contributed scores for choreographers and dancers.

Their new album "Lightbox", from which "Live In Box" is drawn was recorded at Real World's studio in Box late last year with some production by Simon Emmerson (The Imagined Village, Afro Celt Sound System). The album contains a number of original compositions plus their trademark arrangements of Northern English traditional songs including the "White Hart", theme tune of the hit BBC2 nature series "Johnny's Kingdom". The band work fast in the studio often nailing the tune in one or two takes and eschewing the convenience of overdubs or tricks. The intention being that what is recorded should be playable live. This results in a spontaneous yet intricate sound which shimmers with vital presence.

Spiro compose their own arrangements and melodies around traditional tunes often weaving elements of minimalism, dance rhythms, classical harmonies and discords into an array of uplifting and joyful music. It is often hard to believe that the sound is coming from four instruments. The interplay is quite complex and any one instrument may be playing more than one theme, there often may be up to six, seven or eight parts happening at once. There are passages of quiet contemplation, which may quickly transcend into ecstatic and transporting brilliance. Often an off kilter pattern will resolve itself in the arrangement. Not everything is complex sometimes the simplicity and power of the tune and the groove will foreground itself.

Arrangements may start with a tune or a riff, some of the tunes on the new CD have been distilling for 12 years. Sometimes the traditional tune is dropped and the backing comes to the four. The resulti is a fine web of sound in which no instrument comes to the fore the whole being the sum of the parts. The key to Spiro's success, and almost certainly a result of the longevity of the band, is their superb ensemble playing resulting in what the band refer to as "the mesh". An absence of almost all ornamentation in the playing allows the individual instruments to make that mesh more easily. There is no showboating in Spiro, the sum of the whole becomes their strength and often creates the impression as band member Jon Hunt points out "that I am playing the band instead of the guitar".

The high emotion the band achieve lies in this collective approach. The use of repetition, cycles and loops can bring a trance like feel to the proceedings, mesmerizing moods. Repeated listening to tunes will often bring out hidden aspects to the songs. The listener gets to hear different things within passages each time they are heard. Sometimes a rhythmic structure will re-arrange itself, as a new pattern of notes seems to jump out unexpected on the second time around.

This is music which can be revisited again and again each time sounding as fresh as the first. This is music with no sell by date, floating out there in a world of its own but worldly all the same. You are welcome to open up the box.
(Biography supplied by artists agent and photograph by York Tillyer 2009)

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