Sussex duo release fine new album

It is comprised of Jim and Josie Tipler who are based in the heart of the South Downs close to the Wilmington Giant chalk hill figure. No surprise then then that Sussex and the landscape is resonant in their music.

A Holloway is an ancient sunken track or lane that is often covered with a cathedral like roof of tree branches. The beautiful impressionist painting of a Holloway on the cover of the new album was created by talented artist Josie.

Josie plays clarinet while Jim is an accomplished guitarist. Both sing and harmonise beautifully. The album opens with All Gone South, with its lilting clarinet intro, then we are firmly on home territory with the song Cuckmere.

Dound Drowned has a traditional folk feel to it and is a fine showcase for the way their voices harmonise together before segueing into the beautifully fragile guitar intro of A Perfect Place, which then swells with Josie’s haunting clarinet – it’s a finely wrought piece.

The Ballad of Gabriel Oak is one of the stand-out pieces, re-telling events from Hardy’s Far from the Madding Crowd. It is defined by fine singing and intricate guitar playing, underpinned by rhythmic percussion.

A Little Bit Alike is a jaunty and wry inward look at the couple’s long standing relationship. Widow’s Revenge could sit proudly anywhere within the traditional folk cannon, even though its self-penned.

Anning’s Fossil Depot, led by Josie’s stunning voice, accompanied with strings, summons the spirit of pioneering English palaeontologist and fossil collector Mary Anning, the first to discover the complete skeleton of a Plesiosaurus.

Unsaid is a beautifully wrought cautionary tale about the importance of not keeping things in and failing to communicate your love. The album comes to a close with a beautiful clarinet and guitar instrumental that feels like evening falling.

You can make some comparisons with their music – Cuckmere and Sparkle Jar evoked the English pastoralism of Barclay James Harvest – but they don’t come easily. Milton Hide have very much created their own sound and identity.

The songs here form like jewels or dew drops on blades of grass, bright, resonant and beautifully fashioned. Arrangements are tight but with ample room to breathe, with plenty of light and shade.

Sometimes when writing a review there is an urge to conjure a single word that sums everything up. Always a challenge when music is multi-dimensional, shifts and squirms like an eel, desperate to avoid definitive description. But not a man to give up, on hearing Milton Hide’s latest work - I would settle for the word ‘purity’. It’s there in everything they present, hand in hand with its natural partner honesty.

Milton Hide play live at the Albion pub, in Hastings Old Town on Saturday September 16 at 4pm. To order the album and find out more about up-coming live performances, visit www.miltonhide.com.