(2023) Kim Edgar - Consequences    


Review:
For her fifth solo album, the songs on Kim Edgar’s Consequences focus on the personal, social or environmental consequences of human behaviour. A collection of songwriting and recording collaborations, it finds the Edinburgh pianist collaborating with the likes of Louis Abbott, Rachel Sermanni, James Grant, Boo Hewerdine, and Horse McDonald. With settings that range from wondering whether love conquers all to a child in a refugee camp, it opens to ‘Any Wishing Star’, co-written with Ron Sexsmith, a gentle piano hope “for the world its wounds to heal” and “a life worth living/Where forgiveness is for giving/And banishment forbidden“, a calling to come together for a healing (“You may not have caused the darkness/But it’s up to you to make it bright“) that, in its orchestral sweep, has the feel of something from a Sondheim musical, ending with a snatch from Starlight, Star Bright. That’s followed with a co-write with fellow Scot, Horse McDonald, who also adds vocals and programming to the moodily atmospheric Save Myself (Run Away), a song about surviving trauma which draws on how McDonald was abducted as a child and how what happened to her during that time remains a blank, keeping silent in order to survive the effects as the lyrics ask “Can I look into this open wound / Or just keep existing, tethered, numb / Can I process pain, begin to trust / In the person I’ve become?“ Similarly introspective, anchored by pulsing synths, The Edge of Shame has her working with Boo Hewardine on another song that addresses how the past has the power to haunt (“Time didn’t mend – time has been cruel / Her voice still wavers when she talks / It wasn’t her who made the rules / Nothing hurts my heart as much / As when you cannot meet my eye / It’s all of us who have done you wrong“). Edgar was partly inspired by a documentary on how unmarried mothers were shamed and persuaded to adopt their children during the 1950s, 60s and 70s. It’s estimated that half a million women were affected, a stark reminder of how attitudes can change vastly over time. A duet with co-writer Dan Bettridge also on resonant guitar, she describes the gently undulating, rumbling drums, anthemically gathering The Rolling Sea, a particular highlight, as an almost break-up song between planet earth and humanity (“There’s only so much I can take / I love you, still I need to warn you / Tread lightly, tread lightly“). Structured around synths and electronic beats, as the title suggests, Fifty to One, a brass-warmed co-write with Edinburgh dark pop artist Goodnight Louisa, who adds her vocals to the mix, plays on an impressionistic theme of gambling and the costs it can exact (“Oh the people would gamble / Their own wife and children… Vacant eyes in empty faces / Tired fingers feed machines“). Written on the day Russia invaded Ukraine, It Only Takes a Silence, with and featuring Finnish musician J-P Piirainenon guitele, vocals and programming, essentially takes the theme of evil flourishes when good men do nothing in a celebration of those who speak out and take action against injustice, the music written in Finnish traditional 5/4 time signature with Piirainen whispering lyrics gathered from old traditional Finnish texts about silence and being quiet. And from Finnish to French with Vent Fou with piano by Edgar, brass from  Mikey Owers and words and vocals by French Canadian singer Sandra Le Couteur which, for those who can translate, is another environmental-themed number about the climate crisis. Another Scottish songsmith, James Grant, is her co-writer, guitarist and backing singer for the bluesy-jazz-toned Cornerstone, a celebration of the power and importance of storytelling (“You are the proof I am not alone / You explain me / Teach me where I’m from / Entertain me / Help me to belong / You sustain me“) with a chant-like mid-section vocal. Piano returns to the spotlight with I Dream, a, ahem, waltzing dreamy, collaboration with Taiwanese musician Stone on music, lyrics and guitar that draws on Taoism and being one with nature, speaks to the need to come together as “No more them and us / Simply living“. A similar theme informs the Rachel Sermanni co-write (again guesting on guitar and vocals), Ripples with a simple picked guitar pattern and Rhodes caresses that echo the title with the equally simple image of “An open door, a cup of tea / I sit down and you sit with me / A touch to reassure“. The penultimate track teams her with Admiral Fallow’s Louis Abbot harmonising on Whisper Pink, an almost dream pop-folk number about missing someone or something with separation caused by work or circumstance (“Aching to be home, to be held / I’ll keep to my myself / And find a quiet corner to drown it out / An unforgiving floor / Beside the scarf left behind / And yesterday’s headlines / Can’t reach you, wish you were near“). The album ends then with In the Long Run, a brass and piano-backed track written solely by Australian William Crighton that addresses the theme of refugees and the innocent victims of war with particularly affecting images like: “As if somehow they’d kept him safe / They fastened it with two small locks / Three letters, and a sketch he’d made / They sent his things home in a box / and how / Bodies float upon the sea / That once hoped for a better life / Human, just like you and me / Daughter, father, brother, wife / Another sacrifice to war / Collateral, a little child / They laid her in a tiny box / Another life destroyed, defiled”. Concluding, “It’s not enough to ask the question / When will these horrors cease? / Boxes pile up all around us /’ Til we commit to peace“. Consequences is an ambitious project, initially released as a song a month and now gathered together in this superb album to be launched at Celtic Connections; the cover image echoes the chaos theory of a butterfly flapping its wings and the ripple effect it can produce, a reminder that every action has a consequence, but it’s up to us all to ensure that it’s for good not evil. — folkradio.co.uk


   


Track List:
01 - Any Wishing Star
02 - Save Myself (Run Away)
03 - The Edge of Shame
04 - The Rolling Sea
05 - Fifty to One
06 - It Only Takes a Silence
07 - Vent Fou
08 - Cornerstone
09 - I Dream
10 - Ripples
11 - Whisper Pink
12 - In the Long Run


Media Report:
Genre: indie-folk, pop
Country: Edinburgh, UK
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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