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Woven Cord Artist: Iona, the All Souls Orchestra, and special guests Label: Alliance (UK) Tracks: 11 Tracks Recorded at May's concert, fans can at last experience or re-live Iona's collaboration with the All Soul's Orchestra at London's Royal Festival Hall. Opening with an orchestral Overture mixing fragments of previous Iona songs with newer melodic and harmonic ideas, this is another in Iona's string of excellent releases. The "Overture," arranged by Troy Donockley, immediately shows why Iona more than almost any other band can make an orchestral collaboration work. While many such collaborations have resulted in overbearing performances with little substance, Donockley weaves together the elements of Iona's Celtic-progressive rock with a larger instrumental base in a way that is reminiscent of his solo album, The Unseen Stream. "Matthew the Man," a 12 minute epic which is notable for the powerful bass resulting from the combined forces of Phil Barker's bass guitar and former member Nick Beggs's Chapman Stick, is slightly less stunning here, but is still a display of the band's versatility and vision as they move the listener through a varied musical landscape, occasionally resting for a few seconds before rushing away in an entirely new direction. The album's other epic piece, "Encircling," showcases Joanne Hogg's stunning vocals. The arrangement builds a solid undertow of orchestral power, and complements it with a delicate topping formed from a variety of instruments, such as Donockley's cittern. Perhaps the track could be ever so slightly more cohesive, but it generally works well and brings out the symbolism of the three strands of the cord as it calls: The Mighty ThreeThe instrumental contributions here are naturally exemplary. Donockley's pipes and whistles are haunting, Dave Bainbridge's guitar and keyboard playing provides a melodic base for the sounds, while Phil Barker (bass) and Frank Van Essen (drums/violin) combine to form a rarely matched rhythm section. The loss of Terl Bryant's percussive skills was a sad one, but Van Essen seems to be handling his role. Noel Tredinnick also deserves mention. He has conducted the All Souls Orchestra for nearly 27 years, and it was his vision which first brought this collaboration into being, and under his hand, the elements flow together almost seamlessly. Not everything from the live performance is included here, which is a shame. The set of reels first captured on Heaven's Bright Sun were performed in even more breathtaking fashion on the night, but are sadly not available on this recording. Nor, thankfully, are the technical problems which marred a couple of pieces. This has necessitated some re-recording, which does show occasionally. There are some things that recordings cannot capture. The weaving together of the cords that became this event cannot be fully realized on CD, but this recording once again shows that Iona is without equals in the Celtic music department. James Stewart 10/21/99
Track Listing: Overture
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