Hurdy Gurdy Man

I would hazard a guess that this is a unique recording, Les Travailleurs De La Mer - Ancient Songs From a Small Island by the Harp Consort of Andrew Lawrence-King. The small island in question is Guernsey in the Channel Islands, of which Lawrence-King is a native. The Harp Consort's projects are always very individual and unusual but this one is obscure even by their standards. The title, the toilers of the sea, is from a work written by Victor Hugo who spent time in exile on Guernsey. His presence and the oral tradition of troubadours on the island inspired local poets to write in the medieval Norman-French language of Guernesiais and it is these dance tunes, singing games and ballads that are performed here. Some additional material has been taken from nearby Normandy and Brittany on the mainland. Instrumentally, he Harp Consort for this disk consists more or less of just Lawrence-King himself on harps, psaltery and chifournie which is a kind of hurdy gurdy. There is also baroque guitar played by Clara Sanabras who is the soprano vocalist on the disk. Both she and baritone Paul Hillier eschew full on operatic singing style for a gentler folky approach. It's especially fun to hear Hillier letting his hair down and enjoying being a participant rather than leader of a project. This is another of those early music disks that would have broad appeal to world music afficiandos.