I have waxed lyrical once before about 2L’s multichannel recordings, reeling at the immense immersive perfection of Trio Mediaeval’s An Old Ladyhall Mass in 2023, during which I fell for the Trio’s tingling vocal delivery of material both mediaeval and modern, and especially deeply for the astonishing sounds that emerged from visiting historical keyboard expert Catalina Vicens’ unique portable organetto. I never knew there was such a thing, and its tone was magnetic.
Ms Vicens does not, sadly, return on the Trio’s new festively framed release Yule, again on the 2L label, recorded in Norway. But instead of the organetto, the smooth sine waves of the Trio Mediaeval’s vocal tones are here instead fascinatingly complemented by various unusual guest accompaniments: there’s a kantele and a hardangerfiddle – I’m sure I don’t have to bore you with explanations of those – and there’s Arve Henriksen on trumpet, if you can identify it as such: he often blows softer than Chet, and on occasion enters so sinusoidally that it might be Jon Hassell on Sylvian’s Brilliant Trees, or even Hariprasad Chaurasia popping by with his Indian flute.
