Album: Spiro, Kaleidophonica (Real World)

A second Real World album by this idiosyncratic quartet: fiddle, mandolin, guitar and accordion expressing a sort of dramatic tension between the poles of traditional English music and minimalist classicism – a faintly mathematical matrix of textures, lines and tonality. All very enthralling for as long as the system maintains its grip.

That the grip slips a little more readily on this album than on its predecessor may have to do with that fact that it is more carefully, perhaps mindfully, "composed".