Wednesday, 08 September 2010 
Other Reviews
Tales of Love, War and Death by Hanging
Hearts And Minds
False Lights From The Land EP
Folk Against Fascism
The Longshot
Blue Beginnings
Levellers Live
Show Of Hands
Dust And Gold
Steve Knightley & Jenna
30/06/2010
Tales of Love, War and Death by Hanging
Ray Cooper
Now that is a challenging title, no whimsy here. In fact the album plays out like an episode of Sharpe, often brutal yet beholden to a melancholic compassion. Ray Cooper, aka Chopper, of Oysterband fame has written a set of songs that are red in tooth and claw. Ray is himself a melting pot of cultures, Scottish mother, English Father, Irish roots and lives in Sweden. The Swedish connection seems wound through the albums arrangements, the kantele that Ray plays evokes the icy Northern forests, black cliffs girdled by mists. Bleak yet simultaneously awe inspiring in it's grandeur.
Ray shut himself away in a tiny studio in Sweden and played cello, harmonium, guitar, mandolin, mandola, harmonica and kantele himself whilst dragging his neighbour Patrik Anderson in on strings - luckily Patrik had won Norwegian folk awards and contributes some spine tingling violin, fiddle and hardanger fiddle.
This is a big proud record that bares its chest and grips you all the way through; The tales of love are tender and gently heartbreaking, the tales of war reveal the nobility and sorrow in the heart of the warrior... life, love and death, the biggest issues in the world. Cooper exhibits a masterful musicianship and songwriting, in tone it's somewhere between Steve Knightley and the Oysterband, the sound is entirely original, again Cooper shows a mastery of arrangement and production.
Many of these songs evoke the grandeur, bravery and bloody misery of battle and war, motifs that are so familiar to us today. The Grey Goose Wing holds the apposite lyric '..back on London Bridge and all the choirs sing... they praise us, not for bringing peace but bringing victory... these people love a foreign war, far away from home. Till they get sick of losing sons...'
Ray possesses a formidable voice, always strong but subtle in its execution of the songs he has written, we knew he was talented but this album just makes you want to hear more from him. His Scottish/English/Irish/Swedish brew is a heady one.
Iain Hazlewood
