Standard: £14
Emily Andrews (flutes) and David Massey (guitars) reach down into their tangled musical roots to create their own unique and imaginative instrumental arrangements of traditional Christmas Carols and folk songs from all over the British Isles.
Recasting some of the most well-loved Christmas carols and seasonal songs in a variety of guises, with influences from country, world music and folk, Emily and David have reinvented the most well-loved Christmas Carols. The Shepherds watching their flocks are now gypsy shepherds – perhaps they always were! – Deck the Halls is playful and virtuosic, while Coventry Carol’s despairing sadness is portrayed by solo flute. A thrilling camel ride through “We Three Kings of Orient Are” contrasts with the magical rendition of “Silent Night”, where high guitar harmonics shine out a shimmering starscape above the alto flute’s gentle lullaby.
These carols will be interspersed with British folk music from the Andrews Massey Duo’s acclaimed album “from the Roots… new branches” which came out earlier this year, and has received attention in national press and radio (Guardian and BBC) as well as high streaming numbers.
“We let the music grow and evolve naturally, using improvisation and memory rather than written music, to respond to the aural tradition of folk music, while using the instrumental technique and beautiful sound from our classical training at the Royal Academy of Music. With flutes and guitars, the words of the songs are lost, but they retain the songs’ meanings in the textures and atmospheres of the music, conjuring up the spirit of the words, for example the gypsy Shepherds sitting around their fire watching their flocks, or the ghost of Molly Malone still selling her cockles and mussels on the streets of Dublin…”
Like the best traditional music, The Andrews Massey Duo’s performances combine the old and the new: while some song arrangements are very simple with a single flute and guitar, for some songs they use a live loop pedal to record a base version, and then free themselves up to overdub improvised harmony parts and solos on different instruments, creating the widest range of colours to reflect the breadth of feeling, the light and shade, present in all folk music of the British Isles.