Liverpool sound and Vision Rating * * * *
For some it is a symbol of classical rejoice, the meeting between the heavenly and the spiritually minded and the earthly bonds that we strain to be free of, and perhaps it was the classical scholar and proto Humanist, Petrarch, who observed it best when he wrote, “…And tears are heard within the harp I touch“
The sense of another world that is touched between human fingers and the strings of an instrument are arguably only matched by the violin, in terms of its purity and guided hand, in the way that both can bring someone of faith, or of soul, to tears, in that respect the old scholar was right, and it is a point that is always worth The Airing it is given.
Rebecca Hill certainly fits the criteria for the statement made, whether you see them or not, whether you feel the warm wet salt glide down your face and brush them off with a display of self-reflection, tears fall because they are the emotions we cannot contain, and across the four tracks included on the E.P., those tears surely will fall and with a gladdened hand urging them on.
The Airing sees two traditional tracks and two self-penned moments live side by side with a state of grace enveloping them, this is not religion or the thought of the almighty touching the fingers of the human expression, but it is the dedication of one woman to bring the harp into the spotlight whilst retaining the soul of the instrument in its beauty and depth.
Through the tracks Marques of Huntley’s Farewell/Mrs Thom, Newark Seaglass, Sleep Quietly and the E.P. title track, The Airing, Rebecca Hill, alongside Charlie Stewart and Graham Rorie on fiddle and mandolin respectively, the sound the listener hears is one of style, deep concentrated thought, of light invading the darkness, but all entangled in the deepest of human mystery. The Airing is a charming piece filled with integrity, unafraid of pain and suffering, but welcoming it as all humanity seems to do to make the better days, the brighter days, are ones to remember.
Rebecca Hill’s The Airing is available to buy now.
Ian D. Hall