Album review: GNOSS – Stretching Skyward

Bandcamp [Release date 12.05.23]

Gnoss – Aidan Moodie (vocals, guitar), Graham Rorie (fiddle, mandolin), Connor Sinclair (flute, whistles) and Craig Baxter (bodhrán, percussion) – released their last album ‘The Light of the Moon’ in 2021. On the subsequent tour supporting the album Gnoss realised how much things had changed post-pandemic and this new album is all about change.

“We thought writing this record about ten different stories with change at their hearts might give us pause to look at the change that’s taken place in our own lives over the past two years.”

Starting off with a lively toe-tapping instrumental ‘Stroma’, the listener knows they are in for a musical treat with this album. Next up is ‘Hamnavoe’, the first song to feature Aidan’s clear and precise vocals. If Skerryvore are perhaps a bit too modern for some folk palates, Gnoss have succeeded in keeping traditionalists and those lovers of modern folk, both satisfied. As indeed does ‘Honey Wine’, a song based on the Scottish travelling people known as the Nawken.

Pick of the instrumentals has to be ‘Vore Tullye’, which features a mix of guitar, fiddle and bodhrán to great effect. Another tune based on myth, this time a March battle between two primal nature deities.

All of the songs are penned by Gnoss apart from the final song on the album, ‘Hard Times’ which was written by Gillian Welch. A song of hope and defiance that is more than relevent in these current times.

Gnoss are one of the most musically vibrant and entertaining folk acts around today. Their musicianship is a thing of wonder and their music lives on long after the final note has been heard on this album. You can but wonder what music they still have in them as they are all still in their mid-twenties. ****

Review by Jason Ritchie

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