Collaborations test the theory whereby the whole is said to be greater than the sum of its parts. Sometimes it is and sometimes it isn\u2019t. What adds to the intrigue in the case of Dyble Longdon is the idea of legacy, and how that can play into the end result.<\/p>\n
When the 21st century dawned Judy Dyble was already very much an icon in British music circles. A founding member of legendary folk-rock collective Fairport Convention, she also sang with Robert Fripp\u2019s pre-King Crimson outfit Giles, Giles and Fripp and co-founded the duo Trader Horne with Jackie McAuley, formerly of Them. Much of this activity occurred before her 21st birthday in 1970; in 1973 she left the music business for the better part of three decades, other than a handful of appearances in the \u201980s and \u201990s at the annual Fairport Convention reunion shows.<\/p>\n
In 2003 Dyble re-emerged as a singer-songwriter and began a series of collaborations\u2014too many to recount here, but do check them out<\/a> if you\u2019re curious\u2014that would continue up through her 2017 teaming with Big Big Train singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist David Longdon on \u201cThe Ivy Gate,\u201d a duet which appeared on BBT\u2019s 2017 album Grimspound<\/i>. Not long after, Dyble was diagnosed with lung cancer. Knowing that her time was likely short, and both having enjoyed their collaboration very much, Dyble and Longdon resolved to continue working together.<\/p>\n The resulting album, with its pungent, poignant title Between A Breath And A Breath<\/i>, was completed prior to, but released three months after, Dyble\u2019s passing in July 2020. It features Dyble\u2019s words in tandem with Longdon\u2019s music and production, with both providing vocals and various members of each artist\u2019s musical circles contributing. And it is a remarkable creation, a sort of smorgasbord of chamber-folk-prog featuring the pair in a series of rangy duets, alternately personal and playful, contemplative and jamming, a collection of performances whose high points will endure as part of both principals\u2019 musical legacies.<\/p>\n Kickoff cut \u201cAstrologers\u201d establishes the vibe, a song whose arrangement\u2014grounded in abundant acoustic guitar, flute, orchestration and gentle keyboards\u2014manages to be grand without being grandiose. It also immediately undercuts any sense of gravity lingering around the album\u2019s context with a cheeky, admonishing lyric: \u201cOh stop it now\u2014you astrologers \/ With promises of love a-coming.\u201d The way Dyble and Longdon\u2019s vocals play off of one another\u2014Dyble\u2019s rather delicate and formal voice generally in the lead, complemented by Longdon\u2019s earthier, expressive tones\u2014works beautifully as the pair trades bits and sometimes sings in unison. Longdon\u2019s myriad instrumental contributions are supplemented on this track by his ex-BBT bandmate Dave Gregory on guitar, Dyble\u2019s frequent collaborator Andy Lewis on bass, and Jeff Davenport of Jade Warrior on drums.<\/p>\n Next up, \u201cObedience\u201d offers a bit of pastoral flavor, with a soaring aspect fueled by a circular acoustic riff and driving drums, with the pair\u2019s call and answer vocals again working very nicely as Dyble rebels against all who would have hemmed her in with rules and expectations. The latter moments of the five-minute track feature a distinct Genesis tint to them with lush synth orchestration and soaring chorused vocals lending a sense of lift. On this one you have effectively half of BBT on board, with Davenport\u2019s drums complemented by Rachel Hall (violin), Danny Manners (double bass) and Greg Spawton (bass pedals).<\/p>\n \u201cTidying Away The Pieces\u201d opens in an airy realm over a knotty, complicated rhythm, with Dyble\u2019s vocals feeling somewhat fragile even as her cadence and precise enunciation emphasize her Britishness. In the fourth minute they bring in trumpet, something of an elegiac fanfare over Davenport\u2019s steady, dramatic backbeat, fitting for this number about tidying up both possessions and emotions in the wake of loss.<\/p>\n The title track\u2014closing out \u201cSide One,\u201d as the old-school creators of this album have presented it\u2014offers an especially thoughtful contemplation of the in-between, those places \u201cwhere the magic lies.\u201d Three minutes in, the song blossoms and takes on some rock drive, before falling back to this crushingly poignant finish: \u201cWhere the space \u2019twixt this world and the next \/ Is anyone\u2019s guess \/ Between a breath \/ And a breath.\u201d Oof.<\/p>\n \u201cSide Two\u201d opens with the proggiest number here, “France,” a nearly 12-minute excursion featuring the entire BBT lineup of the time in the persons of Hall (violin), Manners (double bass), Spawton (bass and bass pedals), Rikard Sjoblom (accordion) and Nick D\u2019Virgilio (drums and percussion). Sjoblom is featured often, setting an appropriately continental atmosphere as Dyble revisits the days after \u201cI would marry a man from a place near Paris,\u201d drawing an evocative portrait of her former husband\u2019s centuries-old family home, a French chateau. D\u2019Virgilio in particular shines at navigating the many transitions between the piece\u2019s distinctly different segments, which vary from atmospheric verses to bold and lively interludes to dreamy fugues, and he powers the band through the song\u2019s stirring climax.<\/p>\n \u201cWhisper\u201d opens airy and chiming with Longdon, Lewis and Davenport giving the tune a rather Renaissance flavor before it begins to billow outward, growing steadily as Longdon adds fresh textures and transforming dynamics, compiling a paragraph\u2019s worth of instrumental credits on this track alone. It\u2019s a bravura job of underscoring a beautiful tune about the special sisterhood Dyble shared with an aunt who was a fellow introvert and artist. <\/p>\n Closer \u201cHeartwashing\u201d offers a jazzy coda, deploying Luca Calabrese\u2019s trumpet and a booming low end from Manners, Spawton and Davenport to create a rich atmosphere over which Dyble recites an evocative poem about letting go of loss and preparing for whatever comes next. The final four lines comprise a sort of self-epitaph: \u201cAnd she looks clearly into her future \/ With open eyes and a resigned and patient heart \/ For what will be the next adventure \/ Should there be such a thing.\u201d (Again: oof.)<\/p>\n Frequent BBT album cover artist Sarah Ewing\u2014by the time of this album also Longdon\u2019s romantic partner\u2014provides particularly evocative and gorgeous artwork here, and the packaging and presentation by English Electric is characteristically detailed and complementary to the music it contains.<\/p>\n It\u2019s natural for the listener to wonder if Longdon may have imagined that, by partnering with Dyble to create this album, he was helping to cement her musical and artistic legacy. What he couldn\u2019t have known is that they were effectively both doing that, each for the other. With Longdon\u2019s sudden passing<\/a> in November 2021, this album now feels like something of a memorial to both of its principals. In that role it serves magnificently, a moving portrait of mortality and creativity that\u2019s full of life and wit and musical invention, and one that, for all its acknowledgement of loss and death, urges us all to keep looking ahead toward \u201cthe next adventure.\u201d It seems to me the best way to honor the memories of Judy Dyble and David Longdon is to take that advice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[10736],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-46341","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-dyble-longdon","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46341"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}