Friday, May 2, 2025
Blog Page 1012

Labour see gains in Oxford City Council elections

Daniel Kodsi
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Labour see gains in Oxford City Council elections

Exceeding most expectations, the Labour Party saw significant success in Thursday’s Oxford City Council elections.

Oxford Mail reported Friday that Labour now control 35 out of 48 seats in the city council, while the Conservative Party continues to have no council representatives. Of the 24 seats contested in Thursday’s election, Labour won 18 and the Liberal Democrats won four. The Greens also held one of their seats, as did independent candidate Mike Haines.

The results mark a gain for Labour, who picked up two seats in Holywell and Iffley Fields from the Green Party. In Holywell, Oxford student Dan Iley-Williamson received 451 votes, beating his closest competitor, Andy McKay of the Liberal Democrats, by a margin of 168.

But fellow Oxonians Alex Curtis, who ran as a Conservative, and Harry Samuels, the Liberal Democrats candidate, were not as fortunate, both losing in Carfax to Labour Party candidate Alex Hollingsworth.

Deputy Leader of the Council and of the Labour Group Ed Turner, who won reelection in Rose Hill and Iffley, said in a statement that the election results were “confirmation that we are fantastic, diverse, liberal city and people love living here and helping to make it a fairer and more equal place.”

But the Conservatives had success in other parts of Oxfordshire, winning 12 seats in West Oxfordshire to Labour’s three and the Liberal Democrats’ two. Early results from Cherwell District Council also show victories for at least three Conservative candidates.

When asked about the disappointing results in the city of Oxford itself, Curtis told Cherwell, “Labour has strengthened its stranglehold on Oxford City Council. This means the need for opposition has become greater than ever. None of the 24 Conservative candidates was elected this year across Oxford, as the Labour Party machine outplayed us on this occasion. However, we will continue our fight as a party for better government in this city moving into next year’s county council elections and the 2018 city council elections.”

The Oxford turnout rate was 38 per cent for the city council elections.

Rewind

Simran Uppal
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Rewind

The King James Version was first published this week, in 1611. It’s possibly the most famous translation of any text into any language, one of those Shakespeare-like members of the canon that have shaped so many different registers of global English so much that occasionally you won’t even notice it.

Translation is sometimes understood as being a fight between ‘literal’ meaning and ‘spirit’, and when the text in question is the central scripture of what has become the world’s biggest religion, there’s special pressure on that division. Religion is something you feel, at its heart is spiritual, religious, devotional experience. How do a bunch of letters on paper thin enough to smoke with connect you to that?

The King James Version is deeply associated with Protestantism, of course, which as a denomination – here’s another dichotomy – was once summed up in a little two part motto, ‘fi de et literis’, ‘by faith and by scripture’. You could argue that you can’t have spirit without letter or faith without scripture or vice versa in each of those. The holy book of the Sikhs, for example, is made up entirely of hymns sung in sincere, totally dedicated adoration of the divine highest ideal. Faith and language and literature and soul are totally inextricable.

Tucked away in the middle of the Old Testament is possibly the most beautiful part of the KJV, the Song of Solomon. Any distinction between divine love and human romantic, erotic love is tossed aside in this glorious, gloriously lyrical poem. But this isn’t uncommon – Dante’s Vita Nova takes his love for Beatrice and transforms it into something divine, Edward Fitzgerald’s famous translation of the Rubaiyat is either an ode to wine and love or an intensely emotional hymn to God; I’ve always felt that it is both.

Another dichotomy we adore is the one between East and West, and similar to that the one between the Abrahamic and non-Abhramic religions. But Gandhi, who was to become profoundly religious in his Hinduism, found in the Gospels a message of compassion that led him to beautiful universal understandings, of ahimsa (non-violence and loving-kindness) and of yajna (service to the world). The figure of Christ was an inspiration for his strict Vedic lifestyle.

A text like the King James Version has a network of links and contradictions like an infinite paradoxical spider’s web; even if only for that, 400 or so years since its publication it’s no less exciting at all.

 

Review: The Weir

Ben Ray
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Review: The Weir
There is a certain type of absolute silence that only comes with good storytelling – it is the silence of held breath, of absolute concentration, a silence so intense and focused you forget it’s even there – until the storyteller snaps his fingers, everyone finally relaxes, and you realise that the entire room had for those few minutes been brought together by one voice. This silence was achieved brilliantly by the Pilch’s new play, The Weir, on its opening night- as character after character stood to share their tales, the audience were drawn in to a storytelling session of ghosts and hauntings that stayed with me long after I’d left the theatre.
The Weir, set in a backwater Irish pub, is run in one continuous scene, with pub chat and banter unfolding in real time – meaning the audience is drawn into their jokes, their petty feuds, and their discussions. Although nothing excessively dramatic happens over the course of the play – as my neighbour grumbled, “it just doesn’t go anywhere!” – I feel this is the beauty of The Weir. It’s simply a group of old friends in a bar, reminiscing and telling ghost stories. And this makes every minute detail a focused point of drama – the rift that has developed between Finbar (Stas Butler) and the others creates a between-the-lines tension that is brilliantly brought out by the actors. The quietly stoic, reserved atmosphere of Jim (Leo Danczak) balances out the loud and boisterous nature of Brendan (Aaron Skates) and the more down-to-earth nature of the barman Jack (Christian Amos, who did a fantastic job of grounding the play. This feeling of genuine involvement put forward by the actors makes every emotion feel more intense: the ghost stories are more unnerving and spooky, the jokes and the laughs (of which there are plenty) are funnier: in short, the audience are invited to relax with the actors, to the extent that they can bring their own booze to the play, and we feel like we are sitting in the pub with them.
There are a few problems with The Weir, if I had to nit-pick and search for them – the Irish accents sometimes wavered slightly, though I don’t know if I could keep one up for that long, and the immediate dimming of the lighting precluding every story made its arrival rather obvious and overly accentuated. But this did not detract from the overall atmosphere: the director Chris Page and producer Claudia Graham have created a wonderful pub setting that at once gives a convincing rural aesthetic and draws the characters closer together. The soft Dublin accent of Valerie (played by Annie Hayter) was somewhat hard to hear on the back row, though that only made you listen all the more intently. The minor flaws do not detract from the overall success of The Weir- at once an intimate and absorbing play, it sweeps you into a rural, Irish world of folk tales, friends, feuds and family secrets. It is well worth a visit – be sure to bring some alcohol, sit back and be swept away to their stories.
The Weir is on at the Michael Pilch Studio, 4 – 7th May at 7.30pm.

A dichotomy as old as time

Henry Shalders
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A dichotomy as old as time

Rabindranath Tagore’s timeless novel The Home and the World is perhaps the most underrated work in Indian literature. Published in 1916 in the febrile political climate of the late Edwardian Raj, it is the tale of dichotomies – the clash between West and East, reason and idealism, violence and pacifism. It’s one of those novels publishers like to tell us are ‘timeless,’ an exploration of the masculine-materialist world and the feminine-spiritual home. Our protagonists are challenged; do they go gently into that good night or join the cause of Indian nationalism in an evil-male world?

It’s a dichotomy as old as literature itself. Book IV of the Aeneid often seems to me to be one long sob story to Aeneas’ feminisation, entrapped in Dido’s home of Carthage and unable to go out into the world. He becomes an emasculated, even effeminate figure, his wife’s plaything. His ultimate act of heroism, a spontaneous departure from Carthage in a seemingly deus ex machina sequence of events, provokes Dido’s tragic suicide, the feminised world of Carthage literally going up in smoke.

The Victorians obsessed over this distinction between ‘home and the world.’ Tom Brown’s School Days is an ode to a boy’s conquest of Rugby School, departing the squirearchy of the Vale of the White Horse to embrace the depravity of Flashman and his pals. It is a bildungsroman in the most basic sense, a picaresque tale of personal conquest and triumph, filling these gendered stereotypes of the masculine world and the effeminate home. It is a binary which bestraddles that genre of ‘boys’-own’ literature, ranging from the Just William stories to the Biggles novels. All have a marked absence of leading female characters, valorising instead male rolemodels. Even the supposedly early feminist novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott invokes male figures of salvation when the going gets tough for the four sisters.

Of course we’d like to think we left behind that gendered version of the ‘home’ and ‘world’ dichotomy some time circa 1968, but the dichotomy itself has not gone away. It’s an idea which infuses postmodern culture, as much in the tropes of Ridley Scott as with Tracey Emin, running right through Derrida and culminating with Baddiel and Skinner.

At Oxford the dichotomy I always find most startling is the distinction we draw with ‘friends from home.’ This is a phrase I heard bandied around early in my first year and it soon quickly became part of the vernacular of our lives. “Oh, she’s got a friend from home visiting,” or “Yes I’m off to meet my friend from home,” were catchphrases we seemed to embrace unthinkingly. I was left bemused. I’d never thought before to draw a divide between home and Oxford. Obviously, geographically they are two separate places and one has separate friendship groups from each. But this casual demarcation of ‘friend from home’ seemed to speak to something deeper, an easy willingness to ‘other’ ones past friends, to distinguish on some sort of cultural level between friendships.

If the dichotomy of ‘home’ and the ‘world’ is applicable to Oxford where does that leave us? Is Oxford the world, and home a retreat – the safe option which we need to escape like Aeneas? We like to think 21st century-postmodern culture has moved on from the Victorian hyper-masculine ‘home and world’ obsession. But has it really?

Kanye West’s ‘Homecoming’ anthem apostrophises his hometown. “But if you really care for her, then you would never hit the airport, to follow your dream” he challenges himself, with the haunting refrain, “do you think about me now and then,” a cry of anguish from someone who has fled South Shore Chicago. You don’t have to live in the Chicago ghetto to understand what he means; that whoever we are and wherever we’re going, we’re engaged with a constant dialogue with our homes.

Edward Said’s famous ascription of Orientalism as a “system of ideological fictions” could easily be applied to Oxford. I think we choose to make this false distinction between ‘friends from home’ and our Oxford friendships as a way of reflecting the unique place in which we work and study. We’re surrounded by cultural symbols and icons which emphasise this dichotomy. It’s an easy ‘Us and Them’ dichotomy which sustains our ‘ideological fictions,’ an easy linguistic get-out for this bizarre and exceptional place in which we live.

20th century realist drama attacked the idea of the home as an escapist fantasy. Most of us know that to be true after spending a week there during a vac. Harold Pinter’s moving play The Homecoming picked up where Tagore left off , taking the sexual politics of the 1960s and bringing them into the home. The idealism of the home is fractured just as surely as James Bond’s house burns down at the end of Skyfall. 50 years on from Pinter, ‘home’ and the ‘world’ remains a dichotomy embedded within culture. The ‘our friends from home’ line is the Oxford leitmotif. It’s a rejoinder to Kanye’s question “Do you think about me now and then?” Not the dichotomy we want, but the dichotomy we need.

Record crowds attend May Day celebrations

Stephen Hawes
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Record crowds attend May Day celebrations

Oxford’s annual may day celebrations took place last weekend, with record numbers of students, visitors and Oxford residents taking advantage of May 1 falling on Sunday. The festivities were welcomed by local businesses as trade increased across the entire week-
end. Oxford’s lively club scene benefitted, as venues across the city were end. Oxford’s lively club scene benefitted, as venues across the city were filled to capacity until dawn.

A spokesperson from The Plush Lounge said: “We were at capacity from beginning to end, with all the usual fun, frivolity, and good vibes leading the celebratory charge into the new month.” The enthusiasm was matched by Amelia from Emporium, who said: “We couldn’t have asked for a better response with regards to ticket sales, all of which sold out incredibly far in advance, nor could we have expected such enthusiasm and stamina from all of our beautiful patrons!”

 

“It felt so historical to know that were part of a great tradition”

Thomas Peet

Many students made use of the excuse to celebrate. “Some friends of mine got to Bridge early and were right at the front of the masses, before one of them had to run away to a café to vomit in the toilet. Vomiting in a café is a new partying low which I don’t wish to experience. When they returned, they had lost their place to thousands of new-comers,” said Daniel Curtis, an English and French student.

Alumni were also keen to participate. Olivia Cormack, from Lady Margaret Hall, recounted that, “An alumnus visited our college to give a speech the night before, so we invited him to the pub, albeit ‘just for 45 minutes’. He ended up spending the whole night in Plush with a group from college and singing on Magdalen Bridge at 5 am.”

Events continued on Sunday morning with, according to the Oxford City Council, over 25,000 people taking part across the city. These included traditional activities such as Morris Dancing, folk singing and the 6am performance by Magdalen Choir. Magdalen chorister and fi rst-year musician Thomas Peet, said “the atmosphere at the top of the tower was amazing.” He went on to say “It felt so historical to know that we were part of a great tradition, making it worth getting up at such an ungodly hour!”

The choir, in one of the most well known elements of the city’s May Day celebrations, have sung the hymn ‘Hymnus Eucharisticus’ from the top of Magdalen tower at dawn on May 1 for over 500 years, making it another of Oxford’s many enduring traditions.

Peter McQuitty, Oxford City Council’s head of culture, said: ‘It was a beautiful crisp, clear morning and people from all the communities across the city and of all ages came together to enjoy that quintessentially Oxford magical moment. You just do not get this anywhere else.

Interview: We Are Scientists

Daniel Curtis
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Interview: We Are Scientists

“You can only make so many guitar-rock records without feeling like you’re starting to wear that sound thin.”

Chris from We Are Scientists discussed the changes to the band’s sound on their latest LP Helter Seltzer, saying, “We still love guitar-rock but this synth-accompanied angle allowed us to feel like the stuff was fresher. Each album we have to tweak something in the production a little to start to identify those 10 songs as their own new thing for us. With this record we approached it in a far more straightforward pop way where we wanted there to be a very noticeable lift in every chorus and we wanted it to feel like an explosion or an intensification.”

Consequently, these tracks sound massive on the album. “It was actually something we were pretty worried about. We’ve vacillated on this point over the course of our fi ve records and we tend to just follow the course of a pendulum, where one record will allow ourselves to do whatever we want in the studio without consideration for how it’s gonna be playable live, and then on the next record, annoyed at ourselves for having done that on the previous record, we will make something that sounds essentially like an ideal performance. This one swung toward doing whatever was gonna sound best on the record in the studio. We were like, ‘we’ll worry about playing it when we get there.’ We’ve really been surprised at how great this stuff sounds, just playing it in a practice space with three guys.”

On the road, Keith is not enamoured with some aspects of touring, but its outcome vindicates the sacrifices. “Some aspects of it become ever more frustrating. There’s a lot of downtime when you’re touring, downtime that you have a very hard time harnessing. There’s a lot of purgatory but the rewards are obvious. The shows are amazing. It’s incredible to have people sing along to a song you wrote. That is one of life’s great rewards as far as I’m concerned.”

Cambridge Falter as Oxford Cruise to Victory

Isaac Virchis
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Cambridge Falter as Oxford Cruise to Victory

Arguably this was Cambridge’s Varsity match to lose. Having found themselves in the same BUCS league for the season, the 132nd Football Varsity Match was the two sides’ third meeting of the season with Cambridge having laid down a gauntlet beating Oxford just a month earlier. The Oxford blues side were coming off the back of a tough season, having been missing key players Ben Stzreter, Sam Gomarsall and Mike Moneke for most the year and only just survived in a tough relegation battle. Worse still, Laurence Wroe who had started at centre back all season was injured in the final warm up game before the match, leaving Oxford fans nervous and presenting Captain Alex Tsaptsinos and Coach Mickey Lewis with a selection headache.

Yet the scrappy, tightly fought fixture that everyone expected on March 27 was all but that. Right from the outset Oxford exerted their dominance in the centre of the park with returning Blue’s and Varsity match veterans Alex Tsaptsinos and Brook Tozer looking confident and calm on the ball as they sprayed their passes across the Craven Cottage turf. The breakthrough came after only fifteen minutes when a clever bit of skill for Jacob Burda on the right wing saw him beat his man for pace before delivering the ball on a plate for the marauding Tsaptsinos, who was able to slot it home from six yards out.

Everyone expected a Cambridge response but Oxford’s solid back four of Brown, Moneke, Wade and Gomarsall protected by Canadian hardman Kieran Gilfoy meant that the man between the sticks, Ben Stzreter had little to do for much of the game. Oxford were clicking into gear with Burda continuing to look like a threat down the right and American James Somerville causing the Cambridge centre halves all sorts of problems with his physical presence up top.

Half time provided some much needed respite for the Cambridge side that had survived wave after wave of Oxford attack and somehow went into the break only a goal down. The start of the second half was much the same as the first, with Oxford midfield continuing to pass the ball through Cambridge, cutting through them like a knife through butter. Recognising the predicament his side were in the Cambridge coach made a switch, bringing on an extra attacking player in the hope of getting his side back in the game. Oxford too, made a change, with the excellent Burda being replaced by the diminutive but nevertheless skilful winger John Dineen.

It didn’t take long for Oxford’s super sub to make an impact, cutting in from the right; Dineen used his low centre of gravity to great effect, jinking past his opponent before sending a left footed curler in from 25 yards, leaving the Cambridge keeper with no chance. Whilst his goal was simply sublime, the same cannot be said for his celebration which involved a pretend golf-shot and an odd hip-wiggle in front of the jubilant Oxford fans. Perhaps he should keep those moves for the Cheese floor.

At this point it seemed the game was all but over and Oxford demonstrated maturity and poise as they saw out the game. Appearances from Dan Brown and Dominic Thelen from the bench brought fresh legs and allowed Oxford to cruise to the final whistle as 2-0 victors. The score line fails to do justice to Oxford’s performance, which was superb from start to finish. Calm and composed at the back, with flair and creativity in midfield and some clinical finishing at the key moments. A shout out must go to Captain Alex Tsaptsinos who in his final varsity match made the Cambridge midfield look frankly second rate with some excellent skill, slick passing and a cool head, deservedly being named Man of the Match. The Blues (currently on a tour of California) could head to the States confident that a team which had showed promise all season had finally hit their stride.

OUAFC Varsity Squad: Stzreter, Gleeson, Wroe, Moneke, Brown, Wade, Gilfoy, Tsaptsinos, Tozer, Gomarsall, Burda, Feeney, Brown, Dineen, Somerville, Thelen

Reserves: Mole, Hilbers, Faktor

How We Won the Boat Race

Aigerim Saudabayeva
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How We Won the Boat Race

A: How did you first get involved with the world of rowing? Were there any other sports that you participated in prior to setting your mind on rowing? If yes, what ended up setting rowing apart?

M: I learnt to row at 10 years old at Ross Rowing Club as part of a multi-sport campaign where the junior girls football team went and tried rowing for a little bit. Then I was pretty hooked! I played every sport I had time to. I think my mum just wanted me out the house! And rowing is just pretty unique really. You get in a boat, push hard and make it move fast. But when you do that, it’s a sensation you won’t forget.

A: How about coxing? What ultimately made you interested in it?

M: I learnt to cox at the same age as I learnt to row. We’d be out on the water in a coxed quad, probably sat in the bow seat, and someone would get bored so we’d just all swap round there and then on the water. I’d joke around shouting at my friends to push harder and put some more effort in and then I just found that I was pretty good at it (for a 10 year old..). Why I’m interested now is probably quite different from when I was 10. The words that you use, how you say them and when you call something, the impact that has on an individual or a crew can be exceptional.

A: Rowing is very demanding and can be quite time consuming, especially at the level that you are competing at, how are you managing to balance the studies and coxing?

M: Just being open to my supervisors and coaches. We have a huge spreadsheet at the boat club where we fill in any key parts to our degree that we have and sessions are scheduled around those as best as possible. My supervisors know when I have big races coming up and we work with the coaches to set about working hours and things like that.

A: What was the training schedule like running up to the Boat Race?

M: 2-3 weeks before we’d have a land based session, either S & C or ergs, in the morning at around 7am and then a water session at 1pm. We’re back before 9am to get to lectures and the pm sessions are around 90mins max on the water. Boat race week was a little different as we were on a taper, so we would have one or two water sessions a day and do less mileage but with some speed work.

A: Going back to the Boat Race, your coxing has been hailed as innovative and gutsy – especially your decision to steer the boat towards the bank and away from the traditional path.  What was going through your mind during the race?

M: Get out of the shitty water! I’d tracked the middlesex bank coming around the final section of the surrey bend and could see the water wasn’t as rough so knew I should cross as quickly as possible to limit the water coming overboard and set up the race line up the inshore zone.

A: Reflecting back on the Boat Race what are the most memorable moments for you?

M: Probably telling the crew that I was going to drive us up the inshore zone and our President Maddy Badcott letting out a ‘BAAAHHH’ of approval in the moment.

A: What was the team dynamic like?

M: The team dynamic was awesome. Everyone’s different in their own little way. There are a couple of space cadets, some laid back wisdom speakers and a pretty Proud to be British Brit. We still see each other and will probably still be doing some racing and rowing together this summer.

A: You’ve had a very impressive coxing career so far with GB Rowing and here at Oxford. Now, that you’re finishing up your course, what is next? Will you keep on coxing?

M: I’ll finish up my degree here over this next two terms and then try and hit up some more coxing within the national team.

A: Do you have any advice for coxes and rowers here at Oxford?

M: Do it because you love it. Feel the boat and let it give you the feedback you need to make it go fast.

A: So, what’s the story behind the penguin?

M: Buzz! (Blue Boat Buzz). We found him in a puddle on training camp when a few of us were acting Mayor and Chancellor of Struggle Street and I picked him up and said that he’d be our mascot. So I gave him to the Pres (presidential duties) to give him a bath and got him an OUW jumper knitted. Then he had the ride of his life with us cabled tied into the boat down the tideway!

Stab the Tabs: Kendo Varsity

Aidan Daly
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Stab the Tabs: Kendo Varsity

On Saturday 23 April Oxford hosted the 2016 Varsity Kendo match against Cambridge at Spires Academy on Glanville Road. We had an excellent turnout, with over 20 competitors from the two universities, as well as esteemed referees Paul Budden (7th dan) and Kazuyo Matsuda (6th dan) from Kodokan Kendo, and Oxford’s own Yasuyuki Hiyama (7th dan), Chris Bowden (4th dan) and Louie Chen (4th dan).

The day began with a non-bogu individuals competition, where competitors were assessed both on the quality of their kirikaeshi, a scripted sequence of 21 cuts against a receiving partner meant to demonstrate basic understanding of distance, coordination, and spirit in kendo, and their kihon cutting, or strikes against the four principal targets: the top of the head, the right arm, the sides of the torso, and the throat. We are pleased to announce that Oxford beginners Theo Keeping (Mathematics, Christ Church) and Shuping Dang (Engineering, Harris Manchester) took home first and second place, respectively, based on the qualitative evaluation of the referees. We then proceeded to a single-elimination open individuals competition, where winners advance by scoring ippon, or vital strikes to one of the four targets awarded by majority referee decision against their opponent. Oxford members Graham Williams and Ryuji Yanase took home joint third place and our captain Rick Collins placed second after a tightly contested final against Cambridge postdoctoral fellow Dai Matsuse.

After the friendly individuals matches, we proceeded to the main event: the varsity team match. Like all major international kendo competitions, this consisted of a sequence of 5 one-on-one matches, where the team with the better individual win-loss record at the end is declared the winner. The first competitor for Oxford, Ellen Hang (Physics, Mansfield), scored men (top of the head) early against Cambridge captain Shin Kitaoka, who unfortunately came back to win the match by scoring men and kote (right arm) in the final minutes of the match. In the second match, Oxford’s Women’s captain Junko Takata (St. Peters) won by two men against Cambridge’s Andre Malinin, who attempted to leverage his greater stature to no avail. The scores remained tied in the third match when Oxford president Aidan Daly (Balliol) traded a kote for a men against Cambridge’s Georgi Genov before time expired. Oxford took the lead in the fourth match when Ryuji Yanase (Teddy Hall) scored a thunderous hiki-men (a backwards-moving strike to the top of the head initiated from close distance) against Cambridge’s Matthew Yip before time expired. Finally, Oxford Men’s captain Rick Collins (Magdalen) sealed the victory by scoring two men on Cambridge’s Katarzyna Sokol in a matter of seconds. Oxford therefore soundly defeated Cambridge 3 matches to 1, with each Oxford student scoring at least one ippon and demonstrating the prowess that propelled them to 1st place in the national University championships several weeks prior.

Overall, the event was a rousing success, with good will between the two universities being further fostered by free sparring and a dinner party at the end of the day’s matches. In addition to those who came out to compete, we would like to extend our thanks to all those who donated their time to administrate the event and support the Oxford team. We look forward eagerly to next year’s match, where we expect continued success.

OxFolk Review: ‘In The Air Or The Earth’

Ben Ray
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OxFolk Review: ‘In The Air Or The Earth’

‘In The Air Or The Earth’, the latest release by the Askew Sisters, is less a simple listening experience than an immersive storytelling session- each track holding a rebirth of an old traditional song and drawing the listener in to a timeless world where girls talk to their loves from beyond the grave, princes marry paupers and maids are left forever waiting on the shore. This is surely folk music at its best: a pure sound that carries the original ballads to new ears, accompanied by the wonderfully talented duo of Emily Askew on fiddles and viola and Hazel Askew on melodeons, concertina and voice. The sisters have already received many accolades, with this their latest release gaining the Spiral Earth Award for Best Traditional Album 2015- and having listened to their music, the reason for this is immediately clear. At once captivating and intriguing, these tunes have a mystic, timeless air that demands repeated listening.

However, it’s not just the music that’s engrossing: on closer inspection the beautiful CD cover folds out several times, revealing an in depth exploration of the tunes played and their provenance. Indeed, even the album’s title weaves stories around the listener- it is a quotation from Shakespeare’s ‘The Tempest’.  As with all the best recordings of traditional music the roots of each song is discussed and compared, giving an entirely new level to the listening experience of the album. We learn that various verses of ‘The Young Girl Cut Down In Her Prime’ are collected by George Gardiner from the Wiltshire area in 1909, whilst ‘Crimson Velvet’ was used as the tune for a number of ballads dating back to 1558, and originally owned a title over five lines long (definitely too long to fit on the back of an album). We learn how each song was collected, the story’s plot, and the songs eclectic route that led to its performance by the Askew Sisters. These songs are no longer simple background murmurs- they are stories that have been told again and again, and that we are now invested in.

These backdrops give whole new meanings to the tracks- and, when combined with the beauty of Emily and Hazel’s playing, create the perfect combination of story and music. The sheer range of musical adaptions, ranging from the haunting drones of the viola to the jaunty dances of the melodeon, means each tune is diverse and fresh. Listening to ‘In The Air Or The Earth’ indeed feels like taking a unique journey into traditional music- a journey I urge you to take as well.

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