The Alehouse Sessions

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A smattering of Purcell, dances from Playford’s Dancing Master, shanties, reels and ballads succumb to a nine-piece ensemble drawing on Baroque, jazz and folk styles for a no holds barred hooley... — BBC Music Magazine, January 2018, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 9th Jun 2017
Catalogue No: RCD1017
Label: Rubicon
Length: 53 minutes

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Playford: Wallom Green (From The English Dancing Master)

Work length2:03

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

Purcell: Curtain Tune (From Timon of Athens)

Work length2:42

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

Henry Purcell, John Playford: Lead me (From Bonduca & The English Dancing Master)

Work length7:49

$1.20

$1.50

$1.75

Bjarte Eike, Thomas Guthrie
Barokksolistene

trad.: Haul away Joe

Work length3:52

$1.00

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$1.45

Bjarte Eike, Thomas Guthrie
Barokksolistene

trad.: Johnny Faa

Work length4:02

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$1.45

Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

Purcell: Hole in the Wall (From Abdelazer)

Work length2:46

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$1.45

Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

Playford: The Virgin Queen set (From The English Dancing Master)

Work length4:43

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$1.25

$1.45

Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

trad.: Pass around the grog

Work length2:16

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$1.45

Bjarte Eike, Thomas Guthrie
Barokksolistene

Nils Økland, Siri Dyvik: Travel set

Work length6:59

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$1.45

Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

trad.: I drew my ship

Work length5:23

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Thomas Guthrie, Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

O'Carolan: Carolan's Cup

Work length3:31

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Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

trad.: The Canadian set

Work length4:15

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Bjarte Eike
Barokksolistene

trad.: Leave her Johnny

Work length3:34

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

Bjarte Eike, Thomas Guthrie
Barokksolistene

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About

'The Alehouse Sessions', curated and devised by Bjarte Eike, is an evolving insight into the music of the English 17th Century tavern. It shines light onto this tumultuous period through Purcell overtures, English sea shanties and Scandinavian folk songs, thrown in for good measure, brilliantly evoking the atmosphere of a raucous port pub in the 1690s. These sessions have already been hailed as "irresistible" [The Times], "superb" [The Scotsman] and "fabulously unrestrained" by The Guardian, "creating the effect of a late night jamming session", said BBC Music Magazine. "The signature of this project is the interaction on stage between the players and the audience...drawing its inspiration from the Shakespearian theatre where there was a direct communication between stage and hall", says Bjarte Eike. 'The 'Alehouse Sessions' will be on tour throughout 2017.

Reviews

January 2018

A smattering of Purcell, dances from Playford’s Dancing Master, shanties, reels and ballads succumb to a nine-piece ensemble drawing on Baroque, jazz and folk styles for a no holds barred hooley of riotous improvisatory give and take…The result is more gastropub than spit-and-sawdust hostelry, but ‘cheers’ all the same!

September 2017

Bjarte Eike’s Barokksolistene is an alchemical miracle of an ensemble, a collective of virtuosos whose instinctive, playful communication and delight in one another’s skill amplifies their individual performances, transforming them into pure musical gold … here’s a wonderfully egalitarian quality to music-making that weaves its way from court to dockyard to tavern without pause. Good music is, after all, good music, whatever its colour, creed or accent.

June 2017

I must admit that the prospect of a musical recreation of a long boozy session in a seventeenth-century tavern had me on high cringe-alert, but I'm so very glad I gave this a spin - the result somehow manages to feel authentic and contemporary at the same time (and had one of my most curmudgeonly colleagues dancing in his seat when he thought I wasn't looking).

15th June 2017

As Barokksolistene’s slogan reminds us, “It’s just old pop music”. Performers like this are unlocking the joy in this music, and that might be the most valuable authenticity of all.

September 2017

Eike is a charismatic artist with a talent for conceiving imaginative live and recording projects … Innately theatrical, genre bending and suffused with great musicianship and string playing, this is a substantial and fine piece of work.

Record Review 18th June 2017

it’s what happens when you take a bunch of adventurous, improvising musicians from the folk and period instrument worlds, ply them with beer, and get them to sing and dance as well as play the kind of music that was around in early 17th century England when professional musicians were banned from theatres and resorted to impromptu sessions in the taverns instead … it could be the most musical fun you have all week

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