LEVERET – Forms (LEVCD06)

FormsLeveret – namely folk virtuoso fiddle player extraordinaire Sam Sweeney, concertina maestro Rob Harbron and magic melodeon player Andy Cutting are celebrating 10 years together with their latest album out 21st April 2023 entitled Forms.

All three members of Leveret have an impressive list of legends they have accompanied such as Jon Boden/Bellowhead, The Full English, Roger Daltrey, Eliza Carthy as a starting list.

Forms contains ten gorgeous instrumental tracks encompassing English folk music arranged by all three band members except ‘Filberts’ and ‘Alvin’s’ arranged by Rob Harbron and ‘Princess Amelia’s Birthday/A Habit of Hills’ arranged by Andy Cutting. Forms was recorded in Belgium by the bands regular live engineer – Neil Ferguson. I just love the titles of the tracks!

Opening track – ‘Bass Hornpipe’ – gives an uplifting tempo and a cracking start to the album. My feet were tapping already! ‘Filberts’ is a lovely haunting tune led by concertina with fiddle interspersing. ‘Blacksmiths Morris/Queens March’ – a lilting tune with fiddle and conjures up a village green full of villagers dancing on a summer’s day!

‘Woodstock Bower/Alvin’s/Scarlet and Green/Nelson’s Maggot’ – a long track full of surprises and felt I was swaying to the music! A pretty, delicate tune next entitled ‘Cotillion’ was followed by ‘A Good Hornpipe’ – a waltz kind of tune. ‘Princess Amelia’s Birthday/A Habit of Hills’ is a full foot tapper in Morris Dancing Mode! ‘Untitled Waltz/The Derby Hunt’ is a fabulous busy waltz bringing images of horses and hounds after their prey. The penultimate ‘Oh The Days’ is a sprightly up-tempo track ending with ‘Mr Lane’s Minuet’ which is a beautiful, haunting track to bring us back down to earth.

Forms is a fusion of fabulous tunes beautifully played and arranged by these fine musicians. Ten glorious tunes which allow the listener to go on a roller coaster of beautiful music.

Leveret are touring in October 2023 so well worth seeing if they are in your area as are brilliant live and have die-hard fans who follow them everywhere. If you cannot wait that long, they are appearing at UK festivals during the summer. Gigs, albums, and downloads are all on their website.

Jean Camp

Artists’ website: www.leveretband.com

‘Bass Hornpipe’: