Scottish Specialists in All Styles

Bellevue Rendezvous

Salamander (Journeyman Records, 2010)

Bellevue Rendezvous demonstrate that they are specialists in all styles with their second album Salamander. Original tunes written for theatre productions sit side by side traditional European dance tunes and played seamlessly with a lightness of touch, a skip in their step and a depth of emotion where necessary from this Scottish acoustic trio.

Bellevue Rendezvous, recent participants at this year’s Celtic Connections, comprise, Gavin Marwick on fiddle, Camerson Robson on cittern, guitar and jaw harp and Ruth Morris who plays the most complicated and awe inspiring stringed instrument, the nyckelharpa. Its not only their incredible musicianship but the way the instruments interplay to create atmosphere, the bowing of the cittern, the dark grainy effect of the nyckelharpa, the mysteries of the jaw harp. They also create interesting combinations and contrasts, placing darker tunes together with a livelier jig, formality with wild abandon, switching leads, new tunes, old tunes, dark and light together, it makes a fascinating listening experience.

Amongst the airs, Klezmer numbers, the frailachs, reels, Breton trance and Swedish dance numbers, there sits a tune written for a Traverse Theatre production, Alexander Salamander, A Tale of a Teenage Pyromaniac, billed as gleefully dark and fiery, it lends the album its name and sums up its character beautifully.

Salamander is released on 25th January on their own label Journeyman, with assistance from the Scottish Arts Council.

Buy the album:

• In North America: Salamander (MP3 download only for now).
• In Europe: Salamander (CD and MP3 download)

Jill Turner contributes to Songlines Magazine, World Music Central and is on the fRoots critics albums of the year panel. GondwanaSound broadcasts on Sheffield Live! 93.2FM to the fourth largest city in the UK and is carried on African Internet Radio twice a week.