Timbrel

Description

Timbrel is a compilation album by the British songwriter, drummer and percussionist Terl Bryant of Iona and Eden’s Bridge fame, released in the US on Rhythm House Records ‎in 1999. It is Bryant’s introductory release into the USA on the Rhythm House label, under the ‘Rhythm of Worship’ banner, along with albums by Adrian Snell and Bryant’s former Iona colleague, Dave Fitzgerald. The songs included on the album are culled from Bryant’s two solo albums, Psalm and Beauty… As Far As the Eye Can See, released in the UK in 1995 and 1997, respectively. The tracks were recorded by Neil Costello at ICC Studios in Eastbourne, at Soundfield in Derby, and at Gemini Studios in Ipswich, England.

This album is a compilation of material from Bryant’s albums Psalm and Beauty…As Far As The Eye Can See. Timbrel is Bryant’s introductory release into the USA on the Rhythm House label, under the ‘Rhythm of Worship’ banner, along with albums by Adrian Snell and Bryant’s former Iona colleague, Dave Fitzgerald. For this supposedly solo set, Bryant utilizes the services of his Iona band-mates, his wife Juliet, and a few other singers and musicians. Inevitably, the overall sound is not a million miles removed from an Iona album, which is a Good Thing or a Bad Thing depending on your point of view. But if your point of view says it’s a Bad Thing, you wouldn’t have read even this far into the review, would you?

By its nature – being culled from two albums – this is a mixed bag. Opener «The Lord Reigns» is a fine song, let down by a soulless vocal performance from Stuart Garrand. (Garrand’s singing also mars «Do Not Fear», which features some fascinating scattershot piano playing from Mark Edwards.) Still, five minutes perseverance (or a brief trip to the forward button) rewards you with Joanne Hogg‘s exquisite vocals on «Christ Be In Me». Hogg also takes the lead on «The King of Love», an arrangement of the hymn «The King of Love My Shepherd Is», which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on her own Looking Into Light album. Other lead vocal duties on the album are carried out by Ben Okafor, Alex Legg, and Charlie Groves. Of these, only Okafor really shines – the weakness of the others’ voices really apparent when they’re singing without backing vocals.

Vocal problems are avoided by having six instrumental tracks on the album. «Israel», with its fluid soprano and baritone sax melodies, world-jazz feel and slick production sounds like something Sting’s band might do; «Vision of Hope» has a spacious, impressionist beauty; «Ten Drummers Drumming» is exactly that. «Dangerous Sea», however, sails too close to the rocks marked “Theatre Improvisation Workshop” and founders there. In «The Shadow of Great Wings» suggests that the band had been listening to more Marillion than is strictly healthy.

Nevertheless, the album is varied enough to contain something of interest to most listeners. Whether there’s sufficient interest to warrant buying this album if you’re not already a Bryant or Iona fan, is another matter. [Daren Allder, The Phantom Tollbooth, 10/18/99]

CD tracklist:

01. The Lord Reigns – 4:48
02. Christ Be in Me – 4:25
03. Israel – 4:39
04. A Dangerous Sea – 4:53
05. Barefoot in the Grass – 2:25
06. The King of Love – 3:17
07. Though I Walk – 5:33
08. In the Shadow of Great Wings – 5:28
09. Do Not Fear – 7:13
10. The Battle Prayer – 6:17
11. Vision of Hope – 4:06
12. Here is Love – 5:09
13. Ten Drummers Drumming – 7:15