"I encourage readers to visit Live Music Now Scotland's website in order to learn more about an interesting organisation that has some unusual and fascinating features. I also encourage them, very warmly, to acquire this lovely disc ... I think that Jennifer Martin’s two pieces, in spite of the technical challenges they present, will be particularly satisfying to get to know and to play. Clarinettist, Calum Robertson, and pianist, Juliette Philogene, do them full justice. Both pieces explore the theme of motherhood. Bi-Cycle begins with a very affecting, rocking lullaby, and the titles of the movements that follow, ‘Haywire’, for instance, give a fair indication of what to expect. ‘Hammer and Tongs’, though, sounds like good-natured banter to this listener ... The final work in the programme, Songs from Above and Below, grew out of a project supported by the Baring Foundation, an independent organisation that provides financial support in the form of grants and whose values turn around human rights, inclusion, discrimination and disadvantage. John McLeod’s composition was part of a programme entitled ‘Late Style’ which supported artists over 70. McLeod produced a song-cycle to his own texts on the subject of the mining industry ...  Songs from Above and Below is, to be sure, a serious and sombre work, challenging for the listener, as well as, no doubt, for the artists. It receives a magnificent performance here from Emily Mitchell and Geoffrey Tanti"

MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

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