Robin Denselow 

Three Cane Whale: Holts and Hovers – review

The second album from this experimental Bristol trio is steeped in the city's history, and offers some fascinating sounds, writes Robin Denselow
  
  


Location can be everything, in music just as much as the property market. What is remarkable about the second album from this experimental Bristol acoustic trio is their approach to recording. Almost all the 22 tracks were recorded live at different locations, from a Bristol kitchen to a Dorset chapel, or beside a Welsh waterfall, and the often brief, atmospheric pieces are influenced by the settings. So there's a track named after and recorded at the site of an abandoned Avon Gorge railway station, while another is recorded in a shed near the Clifton suspension bridge, inspired by the story of two girls thrown from the bridge in 1896 who survived thanks to their billowing dresses. The trio play a variety of instruments – guitar, harp, trumpet, mandolin, banjo – and match the repetition of systems music against traditional melodies. This would make a great film project.

 

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