Just six songs make up The Bell That Never Rang, Lau's fourth album. Commissioned by Celtic Connections and made with the support of the PRS for Music Foundation, the three piece enlisted the help of Joan Wasser (aka Joan As Policewoman) on production duties, and it's another leap forward into experimental waters for this forward thinking band.

 

Formed in 2005 and named after an Orcadian word meaning 'natural light', Lau quickly made an impression, winning Best Group at the BBC 2 Folk Awards three years in succession, their desire for innovation and progression marking them out as a folk based trio striving to make music beyond the strictures of traditional folk, although they are all heavily steeped in that tradition. Indeed, they all met while performing in Edinburgh's folk clubs. Now, their music is largely original, a mix of traditional instrumentation (guitar, fiddle, accordion) and an array of electronics and makeshift sounds, producing something very distinct and contemporary.

 

First Homecoming features Elysian Quartet, one of whose members was Vince Sipprell, the violist, who died shortly after the recording was made, and for whom the album is dedicated to. The quartet also feature the incredibly inventive cellist Laura Moody, and together they embellish the song, spaciously overlaying the subtly folktronica rhythms of the trio, while Drever delivers the vocal in a traditional folk manner, sounding not unlike King Creosote (aka Kenny Anderson). It's a perfect introduction to Lau, who have slowly but surely developed into an experimental folk trio, one who increasingly knows no bounds when it comes to music making, and whose recent Lau-Land Festival purposefully mixed up styles and traditions in the hope that cross-fertilisation will take place.

 

The Death of the Dining Car is founded on the strident, vaguely distorted, rhythm of the electric guitar and the fiddle motifs of Aidan O'Rourke, as the dampened beat drives the tune along. Meanwhile, Back in Love Again is formed around the acoustic guitar of Drever, who after a couple of minutes of seemingly jamming away, finally delivers the repeating refrain, 'We fall out, and we fall back in love again', as the guitar and fiddle work in rhythmic unison, before some buzzing electronics subtly interlope in the background, the song fading away with what sounds like a very rough demo recording of just Drever's guitar. It's playful, superficially loose sounding, and yet carefully constructed, the instruments coalescing at times. At other moments the subtle melodies of the guitar, fiddle and accordion provide neat and appropriate counterpoints.

 

Tiger Hill (Armoured Man) is a little unfocussed, despite the pleasant underlying rhythms and pulse of the layered sounds, the song meandering between scraps of ideas, albeit forming a whole that just about works, if not completely satisfying.

 

Then we get to the title track, a 17 minute epic which takes the experimental bearing of Lau to new heights. Here, in particular, Lau are obviously enjoying exploring the possibilities of song, helped along by Wasser (a classically trained violinist herself), who came in with fresh ears, and who doesn't come from a folk background. But each party knows each other by dint of being on the same label (Reveal), even though Wasser's music (as Joan as Poicewoman) is what you might categorise as indie-soul. Still, her energetic personality, combined with Lau's innate musical trust and chemistry has resulted in this progressive track.

 

Whereas previously Lau used to write whole tunes, now they work from say a riff or a sound, layering it up into a whole, worked up by the trio as equal partners. And this time, due to their ongoing success, they had more freedom in the studio to develop ideas, rather than come in fully rehearsed. Like their live shows, where they sometimes adapt pieces as they go along, The Bell That Never Rang track evolved through many performances before hitting upon the final recorded version. The adventurous spirit of Elysian Quartet is a perfect foil for the trio here, as improvisational strings ebb and flow, Drever's voice coming in a full nine minutes in: "You pulled me from the river with a ring in my mouth/I landed on the bank, I won't be swimming no more," he sings, a reference to the song's title which is one of four lines taken from a verse that is from Glasgow's coat of arms, which itself is linked to the stories of St. Mungo, a 6th century monk who founded the church in Glasgow. It's also a reference to a friend who died suddenly: "Nobody knows when you'll go/And no one thinks to tell you," sings Drever before being accompanied by crescendoing multilayered choral voices, and the song once again seguing into just strings and instrumentation,

 

Final track Ghosts completes the circle started with opening track First Homecoming, a song about the past and present, meaning and identity, survival and hardship. It's also the most 'folkiest' track here, the band going back to their roots, a gentle if melancholy closer.