Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Life is about discovery at all times, the moment it doesn’t then either you have become the modern epitome of a fulfilled Renaissance person or more likely life has ceased to be one in which you crave and the only journey you take is between work, television and bed.
The rich harmonies of Polish group Brassy though are something to take great cheer from and with their stunning album, Brasy Live, the journey can take an unexpected twist and causing a deviation which makes you look at the scenery in a much more positive way.
Brassy comprises five plain chant/traditional vocalists and together they sound as impressive sitting in the space surrounding the Rynek Główny in the old town part of Krakow. As you cannot help but be moved by the spirits of the 13th Century that built the area and the architecture that has come to dominate the square including the magnificent Cloth Hall and the Knights Templar Church that sits in eye view as you sit in one of the many restaurants, so you cannot help be enthused by the sound that Łukasz Wollmann, Irek Herisz, Juliusz Krysteczko, Maciek Siwy and Mariusz Slowik create in during their arguably unique repertoire.
Brasy Live captures the very essence of this plain chant/acoustic and traditional folk music superbly and from the very start the harmonies are such that no matter what your overriding sense of taste in music is, the listener cannot help but be pulled along willingly by the overall experience of delighted zeal that comes across in this live recording. Tracks such as the opener, the traditional Scottish song Loch Lommond, Emma, Hard Times, the exceptional Hey Haul Away, Irish Lullaby, Drunken Sailor and Ostanti Raz all send goose bumps racing manically up and down the skin as if taking on James Hunt over the course of Brands Hatch. This though is a race that the erstwhile Mr. Hunt would lose and sports commentator Murray Walker would scream into his microphone with much passion. For the race would send end and the Goose bumps would still be there in force parading the championship long after the C.D. has finished.
Loch Lommond especially captures the imagination and the listener can’t help but be drawn into the thought of the deep tranquillity of the shore and the mass of water beneath the clear blue depths beneath and the fine mist closing around the voices of five men singing to you from one end of a wooden fishing boat.
Brasy Live encompasses the feeling of real togetherness, of opening up their arms and no matter what your stance on music may be, you cannot help but stretch an arm out, shake the hand and smile as you say hello. A real unexpected treat for the open hearted.
Ian D. Hall