CRAIG FORTNAM, LAURENT VALÉRO - Empty Vessels

The name Craig Fortnam should be quite familiar to our readers, particularly for his work with the North Sea Radio Orchestra, a chamber-prog-folk ensemble whose many merits include having revived and introduced to new generations Robert Wyatt's masterpiece "Rock Bottom", skilfully reworked with the help of ex-Henry Cow member John Greaves, William D. Drake (Cardiacs) and Annie Barbazza, for an album ("Folly Bololey (Songs From Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom)") recorded in the Italian city of Piacenza. Craig Fortnam also regularly performs under the name Arch Garrison (a duo completed by James Larcombe, already a member of NSRO, and of Stars In Battledress) and has a fair number of solo albums to his name. Having taken part in the latest album by the reunited Cardiacs, the musician has also found time for an intriguing new project with Laurent Valéro, released by the Italian label Dark Companion.

"Empty Vessels" is an elegant collection of classical-medieval music. The project's folk soul is underlined by the sound of James Larcombe's hurdy-gurdy, most notable in the only traditional piece, "Bourée", and in the bold title track, as well as by Laurent Valéro's use of flutes, viola and violins, which take centre stage on the evocative "Cathedral" and on "Something", an instrumental with inventive fusions of past and present that serves as a coda to "In The Magic Number", to the point of not being technically a separate track.

Despite its stylistic premise, "Empty Vessels" is not an album of reworked traditional pieces (with the sole exception of the aforementioned "Bourée"): it's not only the eccentric experimental digressions of "In The Silent Places" or the singer-songwriter outpourings of "Cries Of London" that come from Fortnam's pen, but also the gentle, refined "Inky" and "Letting Go Not Letting Go", two madrigals with an old-world charm. Annie Barbazza's voice takes centre stage not only on the aforementioned "Letting Go Not Letting Go" but also on the album's most elaborate and musically rich track, "White Swan", a mini-suite with unpredictable instrumental facets that perfectly sums up the duo's ability to bring new prototypes of folk music to life.

It's a shame that an album like "Empty Vessels" is destined to remain the preserve of a narrow circle of fans following the new voices of folk and the Canterbury sound: while the album might look like a side note in Craig Fortnam's career, it is instead an important piece not only of the musician's own body of work but of this year's output as a whole - an unusual folk album with a renaissance/ancient bent that will surprise you with every listen.

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19/06/2026