Lisa Knapp & Gerry Diver - Hinterland

Any album with Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver’s names on the cover is likely to be well worth a listen. Feted singer and composer Knapp and in-demand producer and multi-instrumentalist Diver happen to be life partners and here present their first full length album as a duo.

Both of them have dedicated a significant part of their careers to finding new angles to English-language folk song. So it’s no surprise that the larger part of Hinterland is constructed around Knapp’s hushed vocals on traditional songs such as Loving Hannah and Lass of Aughrim.

Her trademark breathy soprano set against often sparing and unobtrusive accompaniment gives the album an intimate feel as she puts across the emotion of the songs in an understated fashion. But Diver’s great skill as a producer is finding ways to embellish tracks with greater depth without taking away from the clarity or nearness of the singer.

I Must Away Love matches steady ticking of the banjo with reverb drenched strings and electronics, while kettle drum beats underscore the accents of Knapp’s free association monologue on Train Song. At the album’s most maximalist the tension in Long Lankin is ratcheted up by cross-rhythms of flowing melody against unsettled modern jazz drumming from Pete Flood and creepy glockenspiel sounds lying just under the surface.

With both Knapp and Diver being more than handy fiddle players, the instrument plays a role in gluing much of the songs and tunes together. Whether featuring multitracked harmonics and pizzicato against the tune on the Monaghan Monks Jig set or with plucked notes setting the pace on The Hawk & Crow.

A charmingly varied album that invites us to peek through the Knapp-Diver living room window, Hinterland marks a further evolution in the careers of two of the most interesting producers and arrangers working in the tradition today.