40 years ago illustrator Martin Springett was asked to design the cover for a trilogy by a young Canadian author called Guy Gavriel Kay. That series was ‘The Fionavar Tapestry’, set in both contemporary Toronto and the secondary world of Fionavar. As the years went by Martin and Guy stayed connected and Martin created the maps for many of Guy’s works, feeling so inspired by the words he was reading that over a 20-year period he wrote and recorded this album, which is mostly instrumental with the music taking us on the journeys travelled by the characters. To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the release of the first book, ‘The Summer Tree’, Martin has created the ‘Summer Tree Portfolio’ which led to label boss Nick Katona saying they ought to reissue this album as well to tie in with the celebrations.
Quick confession time, although I have been an avid fantasy reader since my teens, reading LOTR for the first time when I was 18 (decades before Peter Jackson awoke the whole world to Tolkien, in some ways it was nicer when he was a secret), I must confess to only knowing about this author through seeing Martin’s posts on Facebook. That means that although this album is aimed at fans of the author to play and enjoy while knowing the back story, I am listening to this just for the music. Now, I have always thought of Martin’s music as coming across with heavy influences from Roy Harper and Camel, but here we find him more in the world of Anthony Phillips and Gordon Giltrap: it is a delight to hear him providing so much acoustic guitar. It is interesting to hear him moving in quiet different directions as well, as while there are times when he is in familiar territory there are others where he is taking a far more mystical and Eastern approach. His guitars are generally the focal point, but the use of flutes in particular are a wonderful aside and provides us with flavours and smells of the souk. This truly is a beautiful release, and I find it difficult to realise this is one of his older albums which I had not played until now. It is certainly very different to what I would normally expect from Martin and is an absolute joy to listen to from beginning to end.
From a purely musical perspective I thoroughly enjoyed this release, and I am sure that those who are familiar with the stories will get ever more from it. The final song is a new version of “Rachel’s Song”, with Danie Friesen singing and Kevin Laliberte producing, both of course current members of The Gardening Club. It is a very different take to the rest of the album, but it is nice to hear the contrast between this and the rest of the album. Highly recommended to fans either of Martin, The Gardening Club, or Guy Gavriel Kay.
