Nihil Project – “Plough Plays” – [Barl Fire Recordings]

Well, I’m spell-bound by this 2006 release, which may well
have been the swan song for Simon Allen’s Barl Fire label.
Here we have two Italians, Antonello Cresti and Andrea
Gianessi, transplanted to the bogs and briars of the English
countryside, where their roots go down deep through soil
and time. Cresti evidently has written a book on the history
of Folk Brittania. And this project comes from that fertile
project, without a hint of academic airtight death. Instead
the release is alive with past and present sounds, a very
deft dropping of electronics across the pastoral sounds.
and the accented singing brings to mind none other than
Ghost doing their temple tracks in English but completely
reviving tradition from another island. There’s a gentleness
to the tunes, like a Robert Wyatt breeze. Also reminscent of
Ghost is the heaps of help to blossom the sound, like a house
full of talented guests and wandering minstrels, somehow
answering a piper’s call to this release. Even a classroom
of kids joins this field tripping on #6. Listen to the start
and finish of “The River” it’s caught Springheel Jack out of
the jazz club and into the cottage. Please love this half as
much as I do…or I’ll plough up yer garden.

-T’urston ‘unger

PS Looks like the full release is available at

http://www.nihilproject.org/

for those intrigued by what you’ve heard on KFJC or read here.