Tag: Inês Alves F. Soares

Sometimes music can become too specialised for its own good and that could be said of composer/piper/whistle player John Dew. His third studio album, Na Caismeachdan, is a collection of marches, all but one original compositions. The title, as I finally learned, simply means “The Marches”. John is supported by Michael Biggins on piano and David Henderson on snare drum with a string quartet comprising Victoria Pevernagie, Inês Alves F. Soares, Suzanne Godet and Josiah Duhlstine.

Now you might be expecting an album of bombastic military tunes, the sort of music you might hear from a pipe band but far from it. The opening track, ‘Murie Winds’, begins with jumble of strange sounds and I looked in vain for a synthesiser credit. I suspect that John was just showing off what he can do but then the whistle takes over and the track morphs into a relatively calm piece. Next come a pair of retreat marches also played on whistle, the second of which, ‘The Roses Of Upper Inverr’, is by far the prettiest tune on the record.

The pipes are front and centre for ‘The Ruins Of Guylen Castle’, a traditional sounding piece with a minimal piano accompaniment and lots of twiddly bits (the closest I can get to a technical description). The pipes are still with us for ‘2/4 Marches’ which, individually, rejoice in those long titles so beloved in Scottish music. Whistle and piano are back for ‘The Makers’ Marches’ with Biggins getting an arranging credit.

‘Angleland’ comes in two parts, part 1 beginning with solo pipes before the piano joins in again, first on top and then on the left hand and by the end both instruments are going hard at it, sliding imperceptibly into part 2, subtitled ‘Greenside’. Pipes and piano are together again for ‘The Heathen Priests’ then comes the single, ‘Red Castle’, beginning with doomy piano which leads into a very traditional-sounding tune slipping away before the whistle comes in. Finally we have the only composition not by Dew – the long ‘The Sound Of The Sea’ by P/M Donald MacLeod, a melancholy solo pipe composition of the sort that John Dew has won prizes for. It was either written in two sections or there is a quiet hidden track annoyingly tacked on at the end.

You might think that Na Caismeachdan might be rather too esoteric for your taste but you’d be surprised. I’ve enjoyed it although it has called on all my powers of concentration to write about it.

Dai Jeffries

Artist’s website: https://www.johndew-composition.com/

‘Red Castle’: