There has always been a market for traditional Scottish music, especially and unsurprisingly in Scotland, and so the wind would surely be in the favour of the debut album from four good and honest current generation practitioners of traditional Scottish music like Airdan.
Airdan - Paul Sinclair, Coll Williamson, David Lennon and Ewa Adamiec – add their combined voice to the clamour heard in festivals throughout the summer for something to get the patriotic blood stirring. Not their actual voice though as these ten songs are all instrumentals, and solidly played they are, without any perceptible spaces where words would have crept in. As might therefore be expected, these songs are very much in the restrained style of those who went before them although a certain youthful, and mostly percussive, playfulness does make its way to the surface in “Dug’s Lugs” and “Loopy Paddlers".
Fans of traditional Scottish music will find that “Cosmic” complies more than adequately with their expectations yet there is enough evidence of a sense of adventure to suggest that those who appreciate the inspirational power of music will be well served by their next album.
Available on CD from Bandcamp and the usual digital places.