Magnificent late period Robin Williamson. Delivering on all fronts: bardic story-telling (The Climber; The Badger); Blakean musings (To God In God's Absence); questing folk (Sir Patrick Spens). Revelatory unearthing and revisting of past material.
Arrangements flawless, ensemble playing intimate. These pay dividends on occasional improvisatory backing to Williamson's text, and breathes new life into the words of others: Sir Thomas Wyatt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sir Walter Raleigh, John Clare.
Stripped of ISB ethno-frippery, the title track shines beacon-like with ever more metaphysical heft; Political Lies is rescued from its original 80s setting and elucidates Williamson's evergreen concern - in his art and craft since ISB days:
And you and I are left with the same old question
The sheer unspeakable strangeness
Of being here at all.
Visionary.
Magic.
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