Utopia & wasteland

"'Utopia And Wasteland', deres her foreliggende fjerde fælles album, er da også både, 'voksent', vidende, gennemtænkt og spækket med gode sange og synspunkter. Masser af stof til eftertanke! Det fornægter sig ikke, at Russel har studeret statskundskab, for de fleste numre er fra hans hånd, og han er ikke bange for at sætte rim på skarpe kommentarer til tingenes uorden. Pladen indeholder 11 numre og veksler mellem sange og instrumentalnumre - det meste selvskrevet. Duoen har på pladen følgeskab af Mark Tucker på bas, percussion og kor ... Der er også på denne fremragende plade blevet plads til en vaskeægte og smuk kærlighedssang, 'All The While' fra Russells hånd. Dejligt, at vi kan regne med at have Russell og Algar i mange år endnu på den internationale folkescene".

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"Utopia And Wasteland ends with De Gule Huis (The Yellow House in Danish), Algar's stunning fiddle tune set, which places his own, yearning waltz alongside the fresh-sounding and brisk slip jig Timmy Collins. The result is a fittingly positive conclusion to an album that explores a formidable range of human emotions and political ideas, and one that flits easily between the minuscule detail and the grand statement. Above all, it is an album that identifies and engages with the problems of the modern world and insists that folk music still has an important part to play in confronting those problems. Algar and Russell have produced another compelling, wise, youthful statement; they are currently one of the most exciting duos not just in folk but in any genre".

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"Greg Russell and Ciaran Algar have displayed all the qualities needed to have an enduring impact. It's not just Algar's exeptional fiddle playing or Russell's telling vocals and rhythmic guitar, it's the way they put it all together with both grace and urgency. They have a natural gift for arrangement, stirringly recognising the dramatic strenghs in a song and the importance of light and shade in a telling. More than that, Russell, especially, is evolving into a terrific songwriter tackling modern issues with passion and wisdom in a similar fashion to Sean Cooney of the young 'Uns, implementing values and techniques that reflect the best traditions of folk songwriting from the 1960s onwards".