The Triple Tree - The Turning Wheel

The Triple Tree is a new project from Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus, and (with Matt Howden) of HawThorn. The Turning Wheel is the first full release from The Triple Tree, following an appearance on the Tursa download only compilation These Cold Hands. The Turning Wheel represents something of a departure for Tony Wakeford. The bombastic folk of recent Sol Invictus material is rested in favour of an expressive and experimental form of folk music. The music harks back to a bygone age but the arrangements provided by the Singali Manus orchestra that augment the traditional guitar are diverse and experimental. It's fair to say that this is the most 'out there' release from Tony Wakeford in quite some time.

The Turning Wheel opens with the instrumental piece, 'Follow The Plough'. A repeating guitar line of mediavel European folk music that is augmented by the deep throb of cello. The title track is an expanded piece that ebbs and flows quite beautifully. At the beginning Tony sings almost unaccompanied before the music swells with woodwind and strings and Tony picking out notes on his guitar. The song continues in this vein allowing the varied instruments to take centre stage at one point a violin plays a weeping score. Voices appear massed and disoriented, and a gentle keyboard performs a mordant melody as Tony references the cycles of nature and the cycle of life. He returns to the lyric 'she draws a cloak around her' throughout the song. As the track continues to develop it becomes more discordant and Tony's voice rises defiantly. Towards the end the music coalesces into a mass of sounds. The cyclical nature of the song's arrangement makes sense when one realises that the Turning Wheel was a mediaeval implement of torture.

The final track, 'Winter Marches On' is another short piece features a folk vocal from Tony over a dissonant atmosphere created through backward recordings and soaring violins. It delves deeper into a maelstrom of drones as Tony's voice continues with renewed vigour recalling the passing of winter. Although largely a folk release, the atmosphere on The Turning Wheel is one of foreboding and the arrangements are far removed form traditional folk music. In terms of overall feel it recalls The Revenge of The Selfish Shellfish Tony Wakeford's mid-nineties collaboration with Steven Stapleton. The Turning Wheel is a download only release, jointly released by Tursa and Woven Wheat Whispers. Woven Wheat Whispers is an online music distribution service rooted in folk and wyrd-folk musics borne out of the folk and wyrd-folk site www.theunbrokencircle.co.uk The music is available to donwload in a simple and high-quality format with profits split between the label and artist, so you've got no excuses not to go and purchase. For more information go to www.tursa.com or www.wovenwheatwhispers.co.uk