Will McNicol with Innotet : Volume 2 : CD

Will McNICOL: The Botanist; Cessna; Before the Light ; Two Days in November ;The River Snail; Jupiter; Lamplight;Honeycomb; An Autumn Moment;Arthur’s Lullaby; The Musketeer’s Approach;Rain on Qingming Bridge

Will McNicol with Innotet

CD: Home produced

Innotet  are a quartet, comprised of some of the finest Scottish musicians in their respective fields: Violin I: Seonaid Aitken Violin II: Innes Watson Viola: Patsy Reid Cello: Alice Allen, and were formed especially for this album and other works by McNicol, who although plays on an acoustic guitar, has written some works here that are very classically based and therefore I stretched a point to include it on my website here.

Immediately, right from the start of the first track, The Botanist, the sound is gorgeous, the playing very good, and the music lovely, melodic and quite original in its style, because as I said before, although this is played on an acoustic guitar, Will McNicol is a classical guitarist/composer as well, and so the music is very much in that style, with this first track having a tremolo section for starters. This waltz styled piece is a great start to this album.

Cessna is more uptempo, but again quite individual, and the strings provide a lovely addition to McNicol’s fine performance .Again I can’t think of any other music I know that this reminds me of, for it is warm, beautifully sounding and cleverly written, and yet quite different.

Before the Light is a little dark and mysterious and slow, yet full of little accents here and there that give it a certain quality. Another lovely work.

Two Days in November is another slowish, slightly moody work, with some interesting guitar work fronting the string quartet.

The River Snail begins with multiple harmonics on the guitar before an offbeat rhythm brings in the main themes, which are pleasant and then return eventually to the harmonics to close

Jupiter (Not by Holst, of course!) is full of long notes in the accompaniment, with a very flexible melody on the guitar, and a second line on the strings behind it. The main melody has a long sequence of pull- offs that did remind me of Gordon Giltrap’s style a little, but that was only in that one place.

Lamplight is a gentle waltz with shimmering strings, and a solo viola ( I think) accompanying the guitar in its melody. Again this is a lovely melody, and very immediate in its warmth.

Honeycomb has a continuous guitar bass accompaniment, over which its plays a sad, but warm little melody with some nice harmonies, beautifully accompanied by the string players.

An Autumn Moment is another beautiful piece of writing (and playing) that is one of the stand out pieces in this album.

Arthur’s Lullaby is the shortest piece here, and as you might expect from the title, quiet, and lovely in its musical direction.

The Musketeer’s Approach is much more up – tempo with lots of rhythmic movement by all concerned that really creates quite a contrast to some of the previous pieces.

The final track Rain on Qingming Bridge has a harmonic sequence in the opening accompanied by short accents on the strings, which is no doubt meant to be the ‘rain’ from the title. The next melody quietens down a little before becoming a tremolo style, and then returning to the harmonic melody from the opening .Then the different themes return again with variations of harmonies and melody, but still keeping the general feel of how the piece began. At the end the music quietens down, ending with a low guitar bass note underneath a string chord.

This is a great album. I loved the sound, the style, the playing, the arrangements, and the very fact that it is quite original and sounding like nothing else I have heard before. Beautiful! Give it a listen, you won’t regret it!

Chris Dumigan