Bert Jansch - Avocet (1979)

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Bert Jansch - Avocet (1979)

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Avocet is the twelfth album by Scottish folk musician Bert Jansch, released in 1979 in UK. Six beautiful and beguiling instrumentals: the 18-minute Avocet, and five other shorter pieces each named after a different bird. This is one of the finest acoustic guitarists of all time really at the top of his game. The pieces ebb and flow beautifully with various folky and jazzy themes disappearing and reappearing throughout. The mind boggles as to how the three musicians managed to remember the pieces, let alone play them so effortlessly. This is no cheesy "easy listening" music, however, and yet none of it is anything short of magical. It's the kind of music that you might imagine Nick Drake may have gone onto make in his later years, had he lived longer.

Much of the album conists of the simple trio of Jansch's guitar with Danny Thompson's superb double bass playing and Martin Jenkins on fiddle, punctuated by the odd bit of piano and flute.

The sound quality on this re-mastered cd is warm and inviting, too, without any of the over-produced, ultra-clean, digital harshness that blights more modern music of this ilk.

The album was first released by Ex Libris in Denmark in late 1978 with alternate album cover and one alternate track title, although no difference in recorded content. The title song "Avocet" was inspired by the traditional song "The Cuckoo". All songs on the album are named after a sea bird or wading bird. The 1979 album, Avocet, was one of Jansch's most ambitious projects and remains one of his own favourites from his work.