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Caliban - Caliban

Artist:	Caliban
Title:	Caliban
Label:	Magna Carta MA-9030-2
Length(s):	49 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1998
Month of review:	05/1998

Line up

Lief Sorbye - lead vocals, octave-mandola, harmonica, bodhran, mandolin
Michael Mullen - fiddle, harmony vocals, viola

Tracks

1)	The Open Door	3.37
2)	Beeswing	5.47
3)	The Journeyman	2.52
4)	Tipsy Sailor	6.34
5)	Oh No	3.15
6)	Jeg Lagde Meg Sa Silde	3.46
7)	The Pony Set	6.19
8)	Bold John Barleycorn	2.54
9)	Major Malley	3.47
10)	What Put The Blood?	3.14
11)	Company Of Wolves	6.50

Summary

Two members of Tempest doing a project on the side.

The music

The Open Door opens the album. It is rather frolic ditty with the main role played by the violin and the acoustic guitar playing in the shadow. The next one, Beeswing, is a rather melodic track, a bit sad and was written by rock/folky Richard Thompson. A rather good track, though a tad long. The Journeyman is a traditional tale set to music by Sorbye. Again quite folky of little interest to proggers. This fact also holds for the rest of the tracks in fact, and on the whole I'd say stick to Tempest if you like them for the speed and agility and the virtuosity of the players and not because you're also into folk. The Pony Set seems like a rather varied track, but that might come from it being a combination of four Irish jigs. The same holds for Company of Wolves which is also a combination of tunes, but I like it better and it is the cloest the bands comes to something "progressive".

Conclusion

If you are into folk, then this is rather nice and often quite melodic effort. The songs I liked best are Beeswing, Jeg Lagde Meg Sa Silde and Company of Wolves.