Toby Hay: Morning/Evening Raga
Cambrian Records
When New Music For the 12 String Guitar was released last fall, Welsh folk guitarist Toby Hay referred to it as “music in its purest form”—an accurate description, considering that it was recorded over two days at Real World Studios using a single guitar with no overdubbing. His latest collection, however, is even purer, Hay having recorded its nine improvisations earlier this year in single takes, one per day, at different places near his home. Anyone questioning the veracity of the claim need only turn to YouTube, where videos of all nine performances are posted. Depending on one's preference, the material can therefore be absorbed as an hour-long aural recording or as a video series, my preference the latter for how much the visual dimension adds to the experience.
The first shows Hay sitting on the ground with acoustic in hand, a lone microphone in front, and the sun rising in the background. Chirping birds helps set the bucolic scene, which he complements with contemplative musings, plucking and strums in plentiful supply. Gradually a melodic shape emerges, the impression created of Hay letting his muse take him where it will. The musical result, while not lacking for animation, exudes a serene air in keeping with the early hour. Adding variety, he plays six- and twelve-string guitars but electric and banjo too, and the tracks also vary slightly in length, most in the five-minute range but some eight to nine. Often, traces of the location seep into the recording, sounds of a river close by, for example, and wind rustling through the trees. Bird sounds are plentiful, including, in the fifth track, a woodpecker's recurring drill.
Emblematic of the peacefulness of the morning and the pastoral setting where the recording was made, the third sees Hay so immersed he appears oblivious to everything outside the music. Without lessening the meditative tone of the musical expression, he trades guitar for piano in the fourth, a rainy day appearing to have forced the episode indoors. The sixth finds him inside again, this time armed with electric guitar and amp, warmed by a wood stove, and indulging in trippy psych-folk playing. Don't be surprised if your thoughts drift to ‘60s guitar icons such as Robby Krieger and Jorma Kaukonen as the eight minutes unfold.
Taped midday, the seventh presents a booted Hay in rustic mode, a shovel, pitchfork, and wheelbarrow in the frame and the guitarist comfortably seated on a wooden bench as folk musings emerge from his fingertips. By the eighth, the sun has begun to set, and Hay plays, at times jauntily, next to a smoldering fire with sheep baaing as accompaniment. The circle's closed when the sun seems to dip below the horizon during the ninth, Hay and his twelve-string reduced to a near-silhouette as the raga advances. It would be difficult to imagine Hay's music being any purer than it is on this collection.August 2020