Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Legendary creatures don’t just appear overnight, fully formed and appearing before an audience, they require time to become the marvel that they are destined to be, and whether it is the forms of those who have become fables in the eyes of humanity, the beings who are part of much older stories than we can conceive, or the various artists, the dreamers, the thinkers, the believers in fortune, the dynamics of interaction through music, song, dance, the pleasure of being alive, what they have in common is persuasion, instinct, undoubted beauty in their soul.
To give such an artist the hope they require to grow, to appreciate what lays in front of them, is to insist that world also finds the ability to return to a more natural state of mind rather than being consumed by the dank moss of corrupting concept and opinion; and in that the uncovering and release of Folk Magic we can move on to a finer, higher, appreciation of what really surrounds us.
Music is magic, not just a kind of charm in which to lure the brain into a new realm, but deep-seated cherished mystery to which the soul and heart know they need in which to survive the ordeal of life, and in the compilation of artists and natural song brought forth under the exquisite banner of Dryad Music, there in lays the powerful spell of performance.
Folk Magic sees artists such as Nigel Eaton, Meidi Goh, Akleja, Annie Hurdy Gurd, Fabis Tunes and Gwendolyn Snowdon be afforded the moment, that special peek behind the velvet red curtain and rise magnificently to the occasion, and as tracks such as Indoor Market, Da Que Deus, Anne’s Wals, River, Up And Away and the finale of Is This Farewell all leave their impressive mark on the mind of the listener, so the objective of Dryad Music becomes clear; an album of sheer and persistent quality, relentless in its charm, persuasive in its beauty, a set of siren songs that lure the mystical searchers, not to their doom, but to their love and passion.
A magnificent album, an album of depth and grace, a place in which magic is made real.
Ian D. Hall