John Renbourn Group — The Enchanted Garden

Originally released in 1980, this was the follow up to the John Renbourn Group’s 1977 album A Maid in Bedlam and follows in much the same vein merging medieval and renaissance music with folk and Indian ragas. The band are top-notch and feature John’s Pentangle colleague and folk legend Jacqui McShee on vocals, Jazz legend Tony Roberts on woodwind,  John Molineux on dulcimer, tabla player Keshav Sathe and Glen Tommy on snare drum.

The album’s mix of styles makes for an interesting listen and with such an accomplished band the performances are never less than exemplary. The album opener "Pavane Belle Qui Tiens Ma Vie / Tourdion" is a pretty piece whose roots date back as far as the 16th century, but somehow still manages to sound fresh, largely down to Renbourn’s excellent arrangement. This is followed up by "The Truth from Above", a traditional English carol featuring some fine vocal harmonies. "Le Tambourin" is up next, a well-known piece originally written by Jean Phillippe Rameau for his ballet Les Fétes d’Hébé. Renbourn and co give it a bit of a facelift adding tablas to give the whole thing a unique feel. "The Plains of Waterloo" takes us down a much more traditional folk route, with a stunning Jacqui McShee vocal, something that carries over into the next track "The Maid on the Shore", a beautiful song about a young woman who takes a sea captain for all his wealth.

"Douce Dame Jolie" is a medieval French piece thought to be composed by Guillaume de Machaut in the first half of the 14th Century. Another track that ensures the album title is all the more redolent. "A Bold Young Farmer" is up next and sees Jacqui return to the fore, Rachel Unthank and the Winterset performed a wonderful variation on this on their second album The Bairns entitled I Wish, but Jacqui had already made the song her own here with a stunning vocal performance. The album closes with one of my personal favorites "Sidi Brahim", an Indian raga that highlights John Renbourn’s effortlessly beautiful guitar playing and Keshav Sathe’s table playing. A fine way of bringing the proceedings to a close.

The Enchanted Garden is a thing of great beauty, a truly lovely album that charms the listener with its choice of music and some truly inspirational performances from all involved. 1980 is not a year noted for producing some of folk’s finer albums but in this instance, I think it fair to list The Enchanted Garden as an exception to that rule. This edition is also beautifully packaged by Talking Elephant in a lovely new digipak with excellent liner notes. Another top-notch release.