BERT JANSCH
Avocet EARTH
Very limited edition vinyl reissue for an album that’s definitely not for the birds…
When Pentangle folded in 1973 Bert Jansch retreated to a farm in West Wales, returning afresh to music two years later and making three superb solo albums in a row. While these featured numerous musicians and some highly accessible songs, 1979’s Avocet was quite the curate’s egg. Recorded in Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, this allinstrumental concept album featured just two other players – Jansch’s former Pentangle mucker, double bassist Danny Thompson, and erstwhile Dando Shaft multi-instrumentalist Martin Jenkins. The results are challenging and beautiful.
The 18-minute title track comes in distinct sections, blending early music modalities with folk. Jenkins’ violins and airy flutes add to the record’s avian theme. Odd time signatures and unpredictable rhythms are thrillingly explored, baroque themes fledge and fly by, and Thompson’s shifting bass moves things along. Lapwing is a palate cleanser by comparison, a minor-key piano piece that’s simple and bittersweet, but Bittern ramps things up – wah-wah electric guitar textures add to its bluesy/folky movement, with Thompson adding punctuation with some gorgeous glissando lines. The beautiful violin/ guitar line of Kingfisher is wistful, Osprey’s 5/8 rhythm is beautifully evocative, Jenkins’ mandocello twang adds so much tone to Kittiwake, an optimistic tune that dips and soars like the titular gull. Through it all, Jansch’s fingerstyle is preternaturally assured and skilful. It all feels so adventurous, so experimental, so free – three top-flight musicians inspired and playing in and for the moment.
With just 500 copies pressed, this 40th anniversary issue is rarer than, ahem, hens’ teeth. Remastered from the original tapes, it’s printed on white vinyl and comes with three downloadable bonus tracks – recently unearthed live recordings in Italy in 1977, playing truncated versions of Bittern, Kingfisher and Avocet. Liner notes from biographer Colin Harper are informative, while a brief new interview with Danny Thompson is fun, but this extraordinary music soars above it all.