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The One Ensemble of Daniel Padden, "Live at VPRO Radio"
I must admit to being rather dismissive about much of the current waveof so-called "free folk," and certainly I've also been guilty ofdeclaring much of the music it has produced as being the product of aninsufferable scenesterism. However, I've also been among the first to praise the truly worthyexamples of the genre, and this new release by The One Ensemble ofDaniel Padden clearly demonstrates that amazing work continues to comeout of the new folk zeitgeist.Brainwashed Handmade
For all of the undeniably interesting music,performance and aesthetic ingenuity that this scene has produced, ithas also spawned an equal amount of talentless opportunism andobnoxious marketing, and a surplus of overpriced limited CD-Rs and LPsfilled with senseless cacophony of questionable musical value. Imean, how many different ways are there for a bunch of unshavedbohos to pound tunelessly on a bunch of instruments they never botheredlearning how to play, anyway?
Live at VPRO Radio was recordedlive in 2004, in a performance by the Ensemble for the famous Dutchradio station, and it's one of the most stunning live albums I've everheard, without a doubt. The performance captured in this radio sessioneasily eclipses Daniel Padden's two studio albums, and also exceeds therather high standards set by his previous work with Volcano the Bear.The seven tracks on this CD showcase a marvelously talented composerand arranger leading an ensemble of adept musicians through hisstartlingly unique sound world. Far from sounding like some slapdash,impromptu assemblage thrown together for a one-off gig, the groupsounds as if they were born to play Padden's songs, and after hearingthis album, it's hard to imagine them playing anything else as well orconvincingly.
As on his studio albums, Padden freely borrows from the '60s psychedelicfolk of groups like The Incredible String Band, along with a widevariety of disparate ethnic musics, but unlike his albums, which oftensounded jarringly eclectic, Live at VPRO Radio soundsgloriously cohesive: a triumphant spontaneous creation of a whollyidiosyncratic style of folk music. Though it is tempting to pickthrough and try to identify specific ethnic signifiers in thisbeautiful melodies created here by bouzouki, cello, guitar, viola anddrums, all of the music here feels of a piece. Under the supervision ofPadden, this group effortlessly draws upon a veritable constellation oftantalizingly familiar musical traditions—Jewish Klezmer, Gypsy,Russian and British trad-folk, etc.—but at the same time, managesnever to directly reference any of them. Many of the songs areradically reworked versions of tracks that originally appeared on2004's The Owl of Fives, but they have been retrofitted to work within the live ensemble context, and arrive much the better for these alterations.
I mentioned ISB, and while the comparison seens an appropriate one, italso fails to get across the power and ferocity of these performances,many which build to loud, celebratory climaxes, Padden enthusiasticallyegging the band on with non-verbal chanting and cajoling. Though theplayers are drawn mostly from the free folk scene, it is perhapsinaccurate to refer to this album as a work of free folk, as each songis clearly a work of composition. However, the performances capturedhere do not seem over-determined or rigidly rehearsed. On the contrary,it seems as if the group feels perfectly confident to travel outside ofthe lines of Padden's songs, and his songs provide a wonderfully loosestructure upon which subtle group dynamics and improvisatory passagescan play an important part. I can't be the only one who has oftenwondered if ensembles like Sunburned Hand of the Man or Jackie-OMotherfucker might be better and more reliable if they actually tookthe time to write some songs. There isn't a moment of wasted space ordirectionless meandering on Live at VPRO Radio, because the group can always fall back on the strong backbone of Padden's impressive songs.
Live at VPRO Radio is a gorgeous and hypnotic work that joyously trips and tumblesthrough a dark, mediaeval wonderland that exists only on an astralplane; a collection of whimsical funeral dirges for a merry band ofwandering monks intoxicated on bad liquor and thujone. It is acollection of hymns to wood sprites and elves; it is the soundtrack tosuddenly noticing the glorious spectacle of an ant crawling up a treetrunk carrying a leaf. It is a magical conjuring act by a group oftrickster alchemists wandering in a foreign land. It is often all ofthese things and sometimes none of them, but it is always unmistakablybeautiful music.
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