The Monday Morning Brew #110

A new Monday Morning Brew Playlist ft. Grace Stewart-Skinner, Joshua Burnside & Laura Quirke, Big Thief, Anna Mieke, Cerys Hafana, Sam Amidon, Ye Vagabonds, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Afel Bocoum & more

Credit: Fortepan / Prohászka Imre

Before we dig into the playlist…a couple of random sidetracks

Mayak (The Lighthouse)

I recently acquired Maria Saakyan’s film debut, Mayak (The Lighthouse), on DVD. Saakyan was a Russian film director, screenwriter, animator and editor, she died of cancer in 2018, aged 37.

The semi-autobiographical Mayak, which unfolds against the backdrop of the early 1990s Caucasus wars, is often compared to the otherworldly work of Andrei Tarkovsky. It was described by Empire as an “astonishing film…aching poetic grace - the imagery lingers like gunsmoke.” The film score was composed by Finnish accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen, known for his avant-garde and experimental accordion work. The film opens with Lena (Anna Kapaleva) arriving home from Moscow to an Armenian village, where a wedding is taking place. The opening scene is so striking, the dancing, the accordion playing, it’s pure magic. The only clip I could find to share was this one, which also includes the closing credits.

While Armenia is not part of the Balkans, it reminded me of Taraf de Haïdouks, the Romanian-Romani musical group from the village of Clejani, who came to Western attention in the 1990s. This clip from the 1993 documentary film "Latcho Drom" features Nicolae Neacșu, considered one of the best Roma violinists.

While many are now familiar with Balkan music, if you are new to this all, then seek out the album Band of Gypsies (and also Latcho Drom, the Gypsy music documentary by Tony Gatlif featured above).

Album Notes: Recorded in Bucharest during three special concerts in December 2000, this is the 4th album by “the best Gypsy band in the world” (as recently described by UK daily The Independent). Forever eager to expand the scope of their music, Taraf have decided to confront their styles to those of musicians from other Balkan countries by inviting Gypsy virtuosos from Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey to join them on stage, which resulted in magical and exciting blends. Alongside these ambitious compositions, the album features a series of pieces (all previously unrecorded) which will immerse the listener in the fantastic atmosphere of a Taraf de Haïdouks live performance. All the band’s various soloists sound on top form, and particularly electrified by the importance of the event, as these were the band’s first ever concerts in the Romanian capital. After ten years of international success and high-profile associations with the likes of Kronos Quartet, fashion designer Yamamoto and actor Johnny Depp, the Taraf were still not recognized in their own country, possibly because they are perceived as Gypsies rather than as musicians...

Laura Quirke

While Laura Quirke may be best known today as one-half of Lemoncello with Claire Kinsella (read our review of their debut album here), I first came across her on YouTube many years ago. You can find sessions that go way back, shot under Pont D'léna in Paris, or a more recent vocal group: Quirke & the Quiet Men:

I’ve always been surprised by how few solo recordings she has released; her distinctive voice deserves to be more widely heard, just watch her covering Richard Thompson’s Beeswing:

She really began to hit more radars in 2021 when she collaborated with Joshua Burnside (who we just interviewed here). Their EP, In The Half-Light (from which there’s a track in this week’s Monday Morning Brew playlist below), is still one of my all-time favourites.

As to how the duo came to collaborate, Burnside remembers passing a battered guitar around a Clonakilty pub and being blown away by Quirke’s vocals. He recalls, “We shared the stage a few times after that in the following years and ended up singing a few songs together here and there.”

But it wasn’t until a duet in The Duncairn, Belfast, that the two decided to work together. Below, you can read a Track-by-Track for In The Half-Light that they wrote for KLOF Mag.

But first, this week’s Monday Morning Brew playlist…

Monday Morning Brew

This week’s playlist opens with a track from a new album that I received over the weekend – Grace Stewart-Skinner’s debut album, Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie. It is a deeply personal and culturally significant project that serves as an “ethnomusicological postcard” of her home village, Avoch.

Avoch (Auch), a historic fishing village on the Black Isle in the Scottish Highlands, is home to its own unique dialect of Scots, “Avochie,” described by Grace as having a blend of Scots and Gaelic elements, with a vocabulary strongly tied to the sea. With the shift towards a larger commercial fishing industry, the dialect has been fading, a fact that spurred Stewart-Skinner into action. Grace says, “The language will be gone within a generation. Auchies Spikkin’ Auchie is integral in conserving language and celebrating culture.” I’ll be writing more about the album on the KLOF Mag website later today.

There’s also music from DUG, Big Thief, Anna Mieke, Cerys Hafana, Sam Amidon, Ye Vagabonds, Jake Xerxes Fussell, Afel Bocoum, Astrachan, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, Brandee Younger, Hayden Pedigo, S.G. Goodman and Bonnie “Prince” Billy, Joshua Burnside, Tenniscoats, Alastair Galbraith, Natalia Beylis, Floating Action, Blue Lake and Dana Gavanski.

Enjoy