Dyble/Longdon
Between A Breath And A Breath
(English Electric)

9/10

By Decibel Report - Sep 27, 2020

From the glorious illustration adorning its cover to the immersive poetic musical contents within, it’s the performances by both collaborators on this now final recorded testament of work by folk legend Judy Dyble whose chemistry with Big Big Train’s Folkish Prog principal David Longdon rises like carefully cultivated cream to the very top on these delightful folk-prog fancies.

Striking up an empathetic partnership by sharing their skillset from differing perspectives, both of these consummate performers have produced an almost super-natural dimension of creative results.

There’s a deep and strong creative pulse lying in wait for the listener to discover when delving a little deeper into this magical weave of words and song textures. And it’s putting her pure vocal to her written words where Dyble excelled as each song chronicles an individual story.

Astrologers is a cautionary tale of a lonely lady who believes her daily horoscope will come true and finally find love. Obedience reveals the story of Lord Byron’s ill daughter and her boundless bedridden imaginings. Both of these narratives illustrate the quality of vignettes waiting to be explored inside this charming storybook of epic sonics and entrancing tales.

This is an album where sadness rubs along with optimism and wild-eyed fascination takes flight when life’s small and obvious details are observed from a less than ordinary angle.

Supported by the supreme musicianship of various members of the Big Big Train ensemble, this album more than whispers class as it casts an enchanting spell as though from beyond the invisible boundaries of this world.

The music itself ascends to the furthest limits of the Folk-Prog genres. Familiar yet inventive soundscapes of startling instrumentation stitch together each composition with a hypnotic embroidery of glistening sound.

The warmth of Longdon’s tonality works beautifully with Judy Dyble’s golden voice as both artists magically combine their breath of sound as Dyble leads with Longdon delivering pitch perfect backing on most of these soul lifting songs.

The scene depicted on the atmospheric inner gatefold photograph of both artists captured in the warm glow of sharing the everlasting power of wise words and passionate music, is heartwarming proof that creating music from the heart, especially this magnificent, revives the spirit and never truly dies.