THE GATHERING QUARTET
The Gathering Quartet
Traditional string music that brings together and strengthens the connection between the countries of England, Scotland, Sweden and Ukraine, and recorded live, with no overdubs, what is not to like?
With just bouzouki, cittern, two fiddles, octave fiddle, guitar, mandolin and nyckelharpa, Louis Bingham, who takes his music from the Celtic fringes of Europe, Scandanavia, the Mediterranean and North Africa, Louisa Brown, Scotland-based with her music rooted in Scottish and European folk traditions, Mats Nystam, a multi-instrumentalist from Stockholm who specializes in playing Swedish and Norwegian fiddle tunes on the bouzouki and Olenya Yeremenko, born in Kirovohrad, (now Kropyvnytsky), who started playing the violin at the age of four, with a deep interest in traditional Baroque music and early performance, The Gathering Quartet were brought together in 2025, and travelled from their various countries to record this album at Tim Lane Studios in East Lothian.
Over the course of the album, the music contains a mix of material contributed by each musician, drawn from their respective repertoires, both newly composed and from their chosen traditional canon, and, as such, what is presented is an eclectic mix, reflecting, indeed celebrating, similarities and differences between the four collaborators’ traditional music and individual styles.
After a light, lilting start, opener ‘Vals på Rokkelåven’ (Of Bare Roots and Buckthorn I & II) gains pace and immediately demonstrates the acuity and dexterity of this group of musicians. The more upbeat pieces, such as the thumping ‘Hornpipe/Halling efter Spaken/Skallen’ set, the skittish ‘Freylekhs Beregovski 91’, alongside two sets of polkas, will have toes unconsciously tapping, as will the dashing traditional Crimean Tatar, (indigenous Turkic ethnic group), tune ‘Khaitarma’.
Quieter, more reflective offerings, such as ‘Blodmåne’, the haunting ‘The Goyle’ and ‘Den vita ålgen’, together with album closer, Luisa Brown’s idyllic ‘Evening Swell’, give ample opportunity for more melancholic atmospherics, and provide for a varied listening experience.
The Gathering Quartet release is an assured and thoroughly enjoyable excursion which more than adequately meets the groups’ objective of wanting to “use their musical connections to transcend cultural and political boundaries”, and is, indeed, an antidote to these perceived barriers.
The Gathering Quartet