The Hall of Einar Sunday Recommendation #44

Hello and welcome to my Sunday Recommendation. Thanks for joining me. Every week I read great wildlife and nature books, stumble upon engrossing websites and hear wonderful new music. This is my chance to bring you carefully curated recommendations of all the best I’ve experienced – every Sunday. If it’s folk, or independent, or about wildlife, nature or Orkney, I may love it, and so may you.

Dusk Moon by RURA

RURA are a four-piece Scottish folk band, with members Jack Smedley, Steven Blake, Adam Brown, and David Foley. Dusk Moon is their current album after the success of their wildly exciting Live At The Fruitmarket.

It’s a glorious mixture of atmospheric, haunting, heart-pumping, thought-provoking tunes with keys, pipes, guitar, bodhran, flute and fiddle combining in a gloriously recorded whole. It’s a triumph from the opening plaintive piano on Journeys Home to its final, dying notes:

Journey’s Home was commissioned as the soundtrack to a poignant short film for Hogmanay 2021, following the short stories of four characters. The band appear in it:

RURA have been together over a decade and it shows in the feeling and understanding they have with one another and the sensitivity to each other’s playing.

My favourite melody has got to be on The Soft Mist All Over. I’ve been at my desk all week working, writing a huge document, and RURA’s album has been my constant companion. This is why:

RURA’s Dusk Moon is available from their Bandcamp page.

Haunting melodies, exceptional arrangements, beautiful playing; this RURA album has the lot. Do check it out. You’ll thank me.

That’s it for this week. I’ll be back with more recommendations of things you might adore next Sunday. In the meantime, I wish you a great week. Keep safe, everyone.

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