GORDON GILTRAP & PAUL WARD
Scattered Chapters PSYCHOTRON/WYMER PUBLISHING
THREADS OF MELODY WILL WIN OVER ALL BUT THE SNOOTIEST OF FANS.
Finger-picking maestro goes multimedia.
In what the progressively inclined folk guitarist has described as “the most significant and important project of my career thus far”, Gordon Giltrap’s new album with regular sidekick Paul Ward is billed as a “multimedia affair”. So not only have the pair made an 18-track record of instrumental compositions (bar one exception with spokenword accompaniment), but they are also releasing a book of artwork and short stories to accompany Scattered Chapters, as well as a YouTube video on the creation of the project.
The book, from the slightly naff handwriting font on the cover to names misspelt on the credits, has the feel of a selfrelease, and it proves a curious affair. It features an eclectic but often striking selection of commissioned artworks via the Artifex Gallery in the West Midlands (from sculptures to oil paintings, screenprints, glassworks and even a silver pendant) interspersed with written passages from Nick Hooper, best known as an acclaimed film composer but here introduced as a “self-published author” as he pens “short stories” (i.e. rambling first-person musings) inspired by each track. Meanwhile, online there’s a 30-minute clip of Giltrap talking us through the origin story of the album. Worth a look, and some of the artworks are startlingly good, but in truth, it’s the music that will be the biggest draw for Giltrap fans.
Opening song Starfield is a gorgeously pretty finger-picked reverie curiously echoing of Lloyd Cole’s Patience richly decorated with symphonic synth, while Nordkapp is an impressionistic affair redolent of 70s synth pioneers. It’s hardly edgy stuff – at times closer to muzak territory than pushing any boundaries – but Giltrap and Ward’s skill in weaving intoxicating threads of melody will still win over all but the snootiest of fans. Now and then, it builds into something fuller sounding. Guest player and familiar face in this parish Ian Mosley adds percussive thrust (in 6/8 time, he confirms on the YouTube mini-doc) to Turning Earth’s anthemic, soundtrack-style swell, and noodly keyboard flourishes push it firmly into proggier territory.
Other welcome textural contrasts occur with short, sweet interludes such as the blend of cascading acoustic and woodwind on The Kissing Gate, the spoken-word assisted Precious and the piano-laced Sharing Days. Elsewhere,
A Cottingley Secret is haunted by celtic pipes and woozy keyboards before beguiling female backing vocals loom on the horizon. A final offering is a retooling, replete with added uilleann pipes, of Giltrap’s best-known composition, the 1977 chart hit Heartsong. As if there weren’t enough different selling points to this whole affair.