Les Triaboliques - River Mud Twilight

Les Triaboliques are full of surprises, but the biggest of all is that it took this long to happen. rivermudtwilight, the breathtaking collaboration from multi-instrumentalists Ben Mandelson, Lu Edmonds and Justin Adams is the culmination of a decades-long, indefatigable quest by these voracious visionaries to absorb and utilize the planet's panoply of sound. Having exercised their skills individually within numerous diverse settings, it was perhaps inevitable that this "meeting of the ancient guild of post-punk, Anglo, globetrotting string players reveling in idiosyncrasy," as Adams describes it, would eventually come to fruition. The album comprises eleven exquisitely rendered tracks - most composed by the British trio - that employ a battery of conventional and exotic instruments, multilingual vocals and a seamless merger of international influences. These diablos of dusk-core offer new distressed string band music for the 21st Century. The Desert, the Delta, the Steppes and the Underground - all are united in what Mandelson likes to call "Triabolique Twi-Fi."

Weekend Australian Review  - 4 ½   stars
 
A collaboration between three guitarists could run the risk of being a festival of egos and flashy virtuouso fills, however this dazzling recording from three middle-aged English veteran musicians is the complete anthithesis to that horrifying prospect.  It is a lesson in musical intelligence tempered with modesty and one of the best discs of the year.
 
The depth of the trio’s musical lineage is an indication of the influences present  here. Justin Adams, whose work as producer of desert-rockers TInariwen and guitar duties with Robert Plant, Jah Wobble and more recently the Gambian musician Juldeh Camara, has established himself as a musical voyager of note.
 
Lu Edmonds, whose  background ranges from Public Image Ltd to the Damned, plays saz (long necked lute) and cumbus ( a banjo and oud hybrid), and Ben Mandelson, via Magazine and 3 Mustaphas 3  plays mandolin and banjo among others.
 
Apart from several traditional arrangements and an endearing barizouki (Mandelson’s own baritone bouzouki) tinged version of the classic Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, the songs are collaborations with influences which range from the Arabic rhythms of Afsanduni,  the Latin melody with Russian lyrics of  Gulaguajira, the salty delta blues of Black Earth Boys and the anti-war folk of Shine a Light.
 
Sounding like a regular gathering of musicians who have played together for many years, Les Triaboliques should be mandatory listening for anyone who is fascinated by the modern guitar and its wide family.
 
 
Michael Rofe