Review by Val Haines
This is the first full length album from East Anglian young musician Finn Collinson. An interesting and varied collection played by Finn on mainly alto and tenor recorders, also whistle, guitar, bouzouki, mandolin and vocals. Other musicians called in to assist on the album are Emma Beach (oboe, cor anglais, vocals), Archie Churchill-Moss (diatonic button accordion, guitar), Josh Clark (percussion, electric bass), Ronan Collinson/Katriona Gilmore (fiddle), Jonno Gaze (drums, percussion) and Tom leader (double bass, guitars). However, this is not a huge band effort and the musicians are used as tastefully as possible enabling Finn to shine as the main musician. The album does make a blistering beginning with full band tune set January Walk, there are two trad songs, Hanging Johnny and Banks of the Nile, sung by Finn and Emma, and a lovely version of the Rankin Family’s Orangedale Whistle, which, as Finn explains in the notes, is a song accepting and embracing change, something we must all do. He has included his own composition Folkeast Waltz, dedicated to John and Becky Marshall-Potter who, by creating the annual Folkeast Festival, have done much to promote local and national folk music in East Anglia. My particular album favourites are Black Mountains, Finn’s own composition played simply on recorder and Emma’s cor anglais, and Tune for the Bullfinch, from the 1717 Bird Fancyer’s Delight, beautiful overdubbed alto and bass recorders to imitate birdsong, merging into real garden birdsong. There are echoes of Flook and 1990s Irish band Diesel in the album, but this is an album focusing, unusually, on the recorder, where Finn has developed his own style. Call to Mind is testament to Finn being rightly considered as one of our area’s foremost young folk performers.
The album is due for release on September 6th. See www.finncollinson.com for details and tour dates