Scotland on Sunday 4th March
Norman Chalmers
This debut from another Young Folk Award winner reveals a Scottish fiddler rich beyond her years with a huge technique and a style already richly individualistic. A singing tone is married to adventurous rhythmic exploration, to take her Highland-rooted repertoire up musical glens and straths rarely travelled. If her 'Lochaber Dance' invites terpsichorean trouble by setting the reel in a tricky 5/4, the air 'Tha Mi Tinn Leis a'Ghaol' will bring a smile to the folk police. Sparklingly produced by Chris Stout, the CD boasts pianist James Ross, Barry Reid on guitar and celebrated accordionist Luke Daniels.
The Herald March 10th
Rob Adams
It's easy to hear why the judges picked fiddler Lauren MacColl as the winner of the 2004/05 BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award. As this outstanding debut album confirms, MacColl combines a mature depth of expression with youthful vitality in playing the music of the Highlands and north-east, with occasional Shetland influences. Her slow airs may well make you cry, her dance tune sets are invigorating, and she integrates brilliantly with James Ross (piano), Barry Reid (guitar) and accordionist Luke Daniels on arrangements that put the emphasis firmly on the melody even when moving along at quite a lick.
Folking.com 1st March
Mike Wilson
"When Leaves Fall" is the debut album from the 2005 winner of BBC Radio 2's Young Folk Award. A collection of traditional material alongside Lauren's own remarkable compositions, it is an exquisite collection that very much rewards repeated listens.
Lauren is ably accompanied by Barry Reid on guitar and James Ross on piano, with Luke Daniel's button accordion also making an appearance on a few tracks. The accompaniment is as inspiring as the sound of Lauren's fiddle, lending a superb supporting role -- though this is most definitely a fiddle album, with Laurens skilful playing prominent throughout the mix. Lauren plays the fiddle with a delightfully effortless and restrained style. It's almost as if she's defying friction, allowing the notes to gracefully dance out from under the bow.
There's nothing at all forced about Lauren's style, it just flows with a beautifully natural sound. "Tha mi tinn leis a' Ghaol" is brimming with poise and elegance, that almost makes time stand still with its utter beauty, and demonstrates the emotional empathy that Lauren can conjure up with her remarkably expressive technique. This expressiveness isn't merely confined to solemnity, as demonstrated on Lauren's own composition, "Graham's Delight," a song inspired by the infectious smile of a fellow fiddle-player whilst performing -- a notion that Lauren captures impeccably with this sprightly number. "An T-Iarla Diurach," is the haunting melody from a Gaelic love song, and Lauren wrings every last drop of emotion from this performance, with her melancholic interpretation. Lauren employs such delightfully subtle nuances, unquestionably revealing the story behind the melody, without need for words or explanation. Such is the immediacy of this rendition, it will make you stop whatever you're doing, and draw you into its sense of yearning -- the rest of the world is put on hold for this sublime three-and-a-half minutes.
The outer cover of the album artwork depicts a classy, composed Lauren MacColl, portrayed chiefly in cool shades of blue. Open up the sleeve and you are greeted by a warm, welcoming orange artwork and photograph. And this sums up "When Leaves Fall" perfectly; classy, composed, yet most certainly warm. This is truly an impressive debut, and highly recommended.
9th June 2007
David Kidman Netrhythms.com
Lauren MacColl – WHEN LEAVES FALL (Own Label)
Brought up in the Black Isle, leading young fiddle player Lauren won the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2004/5; she went on to study at the RSAMD, then played with the band Dochas, but more recently has built up a good live reputation in appearances with her own trio lineup (in which she’s joined by guitarist Barry Reid and pianist James Ross), most notably from all accounts at this year’s Celtic Connections. She was granted a Dewar Arts Award to fund the recording of her debut CD, and now here’s the result at long last: producer Chris Stout (of Fiddlers’ Bid) has ensured that it’s both an accurate portrait and a persuasive showcase for Lauren’s spellbinding technique and winning musical personality.
Lauren coaxes a sweet and lyrical tone from her fiddle, yet there’s also a gritty burr to her rhythmic input and a keen sense of playful syncopation. She gets ample opportunity to demonstrate all these qualities on the CD, which moves through a well-contrasted selection of tune-sets interspersed with the occasional slow air; and like an increasing number of young fiddlers, she’s heard to derive much inspiration from the pipe tune repertoire. Angus MacDonald’s 9/8 pipe march Tianavaig sets the pace, Lauren giving this an unhurried rendition with jerky Scotch snaps that become progressively more urgent before the faster strathspey snaps in to introduce the final reel.
Lauren’s grasp of contrasting rhythms is very sure, and the irregular metrical feet of Lochaber Dance don’t trip her bow! The disc’s three individual slow airs are most beautifully played, and Allan MacDonald’s tune The Seventh Wave forms a fitting farewell, but The Earl Of Jura (learnt from the singing of Mary Ann Kennedy) has a special intensity that I find extra-beguiling.
As well as a host of traditional pieces and some by James Scott Skinner (the track 7 set) Lauren also performs a handful of her own compositions, of which the delightfully evocative title track and its companion piece (dedicated to box player Mairead Green) are highlights – but then the jig inspired by Inverness fiddler Graham Mackenzie is a particularly nifty essay too. I really love Lauren’s style (graceful and uplifting), and I strongly admire her musicality, her gift for controlled phrasing and her innate sense of just how to sequence different tempos to form a credible set. The support she gains from Barry and James (as well as guest button-accordionist Luke Daniels on three of the album’s eleven tracks) is both skilled and unobtrusive, always sympathetically contoured to enable Lauren to give of her best. Lauren has clearly landed on her feet here, and this sparkling debut disc should win her many friends.
Folkworld Germany Tom Keller
10th June 2007
Though one of her self-penned tunes is called "God is an Accordion", Lauren MacColl is a divine fiddler. The debut album of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award winner from Ross-shire features traditional and original Scottish tunes, including source material from the Shetlands the Highlands and Islands, Scott Skinner, and once straying as far as Norway. "When Leaves Fall" has been produced by Chris Stout (Fiddlers' Bid). Guitarist Barry Reid (Croft No. 5 ) and pianist James Ross form her usual trio, and guest accordionist Luke Daniels is featured on one track. Well, if God was a fiddler...
Inverness Courier Calum MacLeod
6th July 2007
After winning a prestigious award like BBC Radio 2's Young Folk Musician prize, a person could be tempted to rush out a release to capitalise, but Black Isle fiddler MacColl's debut is a carefully thought out affair, ably produced by Shetlander Chris Stout of Fiddlers Bid and with MacColl at the forefront of an excellent all Highland trio with Croft No 5 graduate Barry Reid of Inverness-shire on guitar and Sutherland's James Ross on piano, with a couple of sparing guest slots from button box player Luke Daniels.
Technically assured, MacColl effortlessly changes tone from the skipping rhythm of "Lochaber Dance" to the exquisitely tender Gaelic melody "Tha Mi Tinn Leois a'Ghaol" and shows herself to be a serious talent when it comes to composition with the likes of the title track, the theologically suspect "God is an Accordian" and the pairing of "Graham's Delight" with "Compliments To Louise Hunter". Challenging herself with tricky timings and rhythms, this album announces the arrival of a major new talent on the Scottish fiddling scene.
FATEA-RECORDS.CO.uk 09/07/07
Lauren MacColl won the BBC Radio Two Folk Award a couple of years back. It provided her with an opportunity to get out and about and add some experience to her already tremendous skill. "When The Leaves Fall" sees Lauren converting that stage craft and capturing it. The result is stunning a mixture of old and self penned tunes, some played straight and others as part of a set. MacColl can write, as well as perform a pretty mean tune. The album title is about the spray of colour the leaves bring to a city. The changes that can bring lightness to the grey of the city/spirit. Spot on.
Penguin Eggs Summer Issue No. 34. (Canada)
July 2007
Tim Readman
MacColl was the winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2005. She is steeped in traditional Highland Scots music, having been a Scottish dancer from a young age. She graduated to the summer schools of the Feisean movement in Ross-shire where her self-taught fiddling was honed until her distinctive sound developed. She has a unique style, graceful and elegant, agile and uplifting, and is capable of rattling through the quicker tunes with the best of them, whilst playing the slowest of airs with intense feeling and palpable passion.
Her trio includes Barry Reid (guitar) and James Ross (piano), and they provide the perfect backing for her playing. A stand-out recording.
Irish Music Magazine
October 2007
Alex Monaghan
Three things really stand out on this CD. The first is the beautiful tone of
the fiddle, especially on airs like *Tha Mi Tinn* and *The Earl of Jura*,
but also on quicker numbers where Lauren adds a hard edge to her sound. The second is the high calibre of the material which Lauren MacColl has chosento record, from the striking retreat march *Tianavaig* by Angus MacDonald of Glenuig to the final air *The Seventh Wave* by his brother Allan. In between sit two dozen exceptional tunes, including a handful of Lauren's own, and an
unusually high proportion of stunning slow airs. The third outstanding
aspect of *When Leaves Fall* is the level of maturity it shows: strong but
simple arrangements, no gimmicks, excellent production standards in both
music and sleeve, and playing well beyond their tender years from Lauren and
her accompanists Barry Reid and James Ross.
Lauren MacColl isn't afraid to tackle the big tunes. Melodies by Skinner and
MacAndrew are handled with aplomb, and Lauren stamps her personality
on *Lochaber Dance*, a 9/8 jig popularised by Alasdair Fraser, which becomes a 10/8 exhibition piece here. It's followed by the first of five MacColl compositions, the eccentric jig *Fifty Years Young*, and capped by *A Gallop to Kinross* published two centuries ago but fresh as this morning's dew. Gideon Stove's toe-tapping *Reel O' Whirlie* leads into a couple more offbeat jigs from the mind of Miss MacColl. The title tune is another of Lauren's own, a splendid slow reel with her now trademark tricky tempi. The traditional slip reel *Herd on the Hill* continues the unusual rhythms, and the penultimate set plays mix-and-match with sassy march *Jessie Brown of Lucknow*, straight reel *Jeannie Tied the Bonnet*, the hypnotic *Moleskin Kilt* slip jig, and finally Addie Harper's bouncy jig *John Sinclair of Ulbster*.
Deserved winner of the BBC Radio 2 Young Folk Award in 2005, and just
finished her traditional music degree in Glasgow, Lauren MacColl is a very
fine fiddler and a remarkable performer of slow airs in particular. Her
website www.laurenmacoll.co.uk has no samples as yet, but you can hear her on the Radio 2 site. *When Leaves Fall* is an exquisite debut, and probably the start of even greater things.
Scots Heritage Magazine
June 2007
Pete Clark
This is a very fine debut solo recording from fiddler Lauren MacColl, one of the many up and coming traditional musicians in today’s Scotland. In the company of Barry Reid on guitar, James Ross on piano, and Luke Daniels on Button Accordion, Lauren has chosen a varied repertoire to showcase her musicianship. A number of her own compositions intermingle with timeless Gaelic melodies in this gem of a recording.
The Clarity of the guitar and the fiddle in the opening track is quite spellbinding, with the subsequent introduction of piano bringing a warmth to the overall sound. Lauren’s penchant for compound rhythms and off beat accents is manifest in quite a few of the arrangements, giving the soundscape a very contemporary veneer.
From briskly played strathspeys, driving reels and swinging marches to the hauntingly beautiful Gaelic air “ Tha mi tinn leis a’ ghaol” (I am sick with love) not a note is out of place.
Lauren’s dexterity with the bow and respect for the fiddle tradition, coupled with her determination to put her own distinctive stamp on the music makes this album something quite special.